General Motors Targets India’s LCV Market

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Oct. 11 – U.S.-based General Motors, alongside its joint venture partner in China, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, will enter the rapidly expanding light commercial vehicles market in India by 2012.

“We are working very aggressively for the launch of commercial vehicles in India and GM hopes to corner sizeable numbers in the market soon after their launch,” GM India President Karl Slym told The Times of India.

“The Halol facility will be the main hub for these commercial vehicles that we plan to offer with diesel and alternative fuel option. We are investing Rs.250 crore at Holol and will increase the production capacity there to 100,000 vehicles, most of which will be used for commercial vehicles,” Slym continued.

Light commercial vehicles are compact trucks and vans that are built to have low operating costs, fuel-efficient engines that are still powerful enough to carry a heavy payload, and to be used in intra-city operations.

Car-titan Tata will be GM’s chief competitor, and to that end the company will set up a separate sales network for the LCV business.

“We have consciously decided for a separate sales network as the customer profile for the LCVs will be different to a regular car customer,” Slym said. “We understand that it is important to have a sizeable network before we start LCV sales and plan to have at least 100 dealerships at the time of the launch.”