GM hoping to get 20% revenue from overseas markets

US car manufacturer General Motors (GM) today hoped to get 20% revenue from overseas markets by 2011 once it starts exporting to these countries, a top company official said.

The company, which currently exports "minimal" units of vehicles to countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, would also explore options of exporting to Asia-Pacific markets and to European markets, General Motors (India) vice president (corporate affairs) P Balendran told reporters here.

The company proposed to launch a mini-car under the hatchback category by December and would focus on Asia Pacific markets to start with. Exports would mainly consists of the minicar initially, he said.

He said that the company was working on making cars under "300 series" platform which comprises standard design and features, and as part of it launched the premium sedan Chevrolet Cruze into the Tamil Nadu market here today.

The sedan is priced at Rs10.98 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai) for the base model and Rs12.48 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai) for
top model. It has a "localisation content" of 50%, he said.

Giving a breakup of vehicles sold this year as of today from General Motors, Balendran said the company had sold 28,000 units of Spark vehicles and 10,000 units of SUV "Tavera", 5,200 units of U-VA followed by 2500 units of Aveo.

The company also sold 1500 units of Optra and 1,000 units of premium SUV Captiva, launched last year in the country.

To a query, he said that the company would enhance the "localisation content" above 80% on the Cruze model, three years down the line.

"When we launched the Tavera it was having around 60% localisation content but today it is around 98%. Similarly, we will also increase the localisation content (of Cruze)", he said.

On their sales performance this year which witnessed a slowdown, General Motors India Director-Sales Sumit Sawhney told PTI that last year they sold excess of 65,000 units and this year the figure was expected to cross 70,000 plus.Already 50,000 units had been sold, he said.

The company is hoping to complete this year with 10% growth, he said.

As part of enhancing its presence, the company would increase its dealership network from the present 198 outlets to 250 by March 2010, Sawhney said.

He said around 31% of sales came from Southern region.