General Motors Plans to Introduce Smaller SUVs

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General Motors Plans to Introduce Smaller SUVs
16 February, 2009

In order build a strong base in the Indian car market, General Motors India is planning to introduce smaller SUVs and pick-up trucks from its Chinese partner Wooling Motors’ stable.

The company is targeting to achieve a domestic sales of 2,00,000 vehicles in the next five years. Mr. Jonathan Browning, V.P (global sales), General Motors said “We will focus on small and mini cars that form a vast majority of total domestic sales with more products under the Chevrolet brand”.

He further added, “We are also looking at expanding our presence in other segments and may introduce one-tonner pick-up trucks and small people mover vehicles from Wooling Motors to get some additional micro-numbers. India is a potentially big market and we look forward to utilise all opportunities coming our way to have a sizeable presence here in the next five years”.

GM's market presence in China is quite significant with sales over a million vehicles annually. Their plans to bring Wooling's low cost Chinese vehicles to India would be through assembling it here rather than importing to avoid steep import taxes.

Mr. Karl Slym, President of General Motors India revealed that they are also developing an alternate propulsion system to have the right technology for India. They are testing bio-diesel in their vehicles to move forward in the alternative fuel space. This might take some time and meanwhile they have plans to introduce CNG and LPG technology in their vehicles.

Source: http://www.carazoo.com/autonews

BMW India to grow dealership network

German luxury carmaker BMW plans to introduce four new models in India in 2009. According to Peter Kronschnabl, president, BMW India, the company would introduce its latest BMW 3 Series as well as its new 7 Series luxury saloon cars in the first quarter of 2009.

BMW would also launch the X6 sport utility vehicle in the third quarter of the year. The company also plans to increase its dealership network in Tier II cities in India after raising its sales target for the country. It has chalked out an extensive dealer development strategy to support its plan for multiplying its annual sales volume.

As part of its expansion plan, the company has announced the opening of Platino Classic, its dealership in Kochi, Kerala, last month. With this new dealership, BMW now has 12 dealers across the country including Bird Automotive (Gurgaon, NCR), Deutschen Motoren (New Delhi); Navnit Motors (Mumbai), Infinity Cars (South Mumbai); Krishna Automobiles (Chandigarh); Navnit Motors (Bangalore), Delta Motors (Hyderabad), Kun Exclusive (Chennai), Bavaria Motors (Pune), OSL Prestige (Kolkata), Parsoli Motors (Ahmedabad) and Platino Classic (Kochi) .

BMW India will further strengthen the network by expanding into Ludhiana, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur and Coimbatore by the end of 2009. Its dealerships display the 3 Series range (325i, 320i and 320d, 320d Highline) and 5 Series (525i, 530i, 520d, 530d and 530d Highline) that are produced at the BMW plant in Chennai. Among the fully imported models on display are the 6 Series (650i Coupé and 650i Convertible), 7 Series (740Li, 750Li, 760Li and 730Ld), X3 (X3 2.0 d) and the X5 (X5 3.0d and X5 4.8i).

The company, which sold 1,397 cars in calendar year 2007, raised its sales target in India by 40 per cent to 2,800 cars for the year ended December 2008. During the 11 months ended November 2008, BMW had already sold 2,705 cars in India making it quite likely to exceed the target.

Source: http://autocarpro.in/contents/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=449