General Motors is going to make India one of its main manufacturing and export markets in the continent, following rising manufacturing costs in its South Korean facility and will also launch its latest offerings soon.
The “Make-in-India” scheme has turned out to be a massive hit for the Indian automobile industry. Many international manufacturers are setting up manufacturing plants in the country as many incentives and easy processing lures them. The new government really has to be appreciated for the same reason. The next international manufacturer to set up operations in India is a global manufacturing giant, General Motors. The Detroit based car maker is betting big for India and is placing huge faith in our government as well.
General Motors is planning to grab a minimum of 5 percent market share in our country within the next 10 years due to the fact that India will soon overtake Japan and become the world’s third biggest car market with annual sales projected at 8 million vehicles by 2025. The American car major is currently incurring losses in India, even after the fact that the company has been here for over 18 years now. They are hoping to turn around their fortunes by unleashing new products in the subcontinent and also make India its new global manufacturing and export hub.
South Korea for many years has been General Motors’ low-cost export hub, manufacturing almost a fifth of its global vehicles. But rising labour costs in a short period of just 5 years has made the country become economically less viable for the manufacturer, just like Japan.
GM is looking to launch newly designed compact cars (mass market offerings) in India by 2017, that offer good room and functionality. GM’s chief of international operations in a recent interview said that India holds a tremendous amount of potential for them. The country has been quite steady for the past few years, selling more than 3 million vehicles annually. The manufacturer wants to take a reasonable share in the Indian market as soon as possible and hopes to sell 4 lakh vehicles a year by 2025, in contrast to the 57,600 vehicles it sold last year, thereby giving it a 1.8 percent market share.
