Talegaon to house all GM cars

General Motors India would move all its car production to the Talegaon plant near Pune by the next year and make only commercial vehicles at its Halol, Gujarat, plant.

“We will move all cars to this plant to make room for CVs at our Halol plant, which will also roll out the first LCV as part of its joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) Motors by the end of 2011. The first passenger car as part of this JV from Talegaon will be rolled out in the first half of 2012.” Karl Slym, president and managing director, GM India, told reporters at the rollout of the 1,00,000th Chevrolet Spark.

The company’s current market share is 4.6%, up from 2.6% in the last year.

GM India is currently producing Spark and Beat at its Talegaon plant whereas the Halol plant manufactures Spark along with models like the Tavera and UVA.

Asked if the company would set up a separate assembly for the compact car with SAIC, Slym said, “We already have an installed capacity of 3.85 lakh cars here which can accommodate all the three variants. Moreover, just like other vehicles, the design and styling for the new car would be from SAIC whereas vendors and components would all be localised.”

The new car would be sold under the Chevrolet brand name whereas the company is still working out the branding for the LCVs.

“The LCVs would be in the sub one tonne category and we are also making strategic investment to support the growth,” said Slym.

The powertrain plant at Talegaon would be operational by November this year and would make engines up to a displacement of 1.5 litre, he said.

Meanwhile, GM India, which decided to phase out Tavera as part of the BSIV emission norms, is currently working on revamping the Tavera to BSIV compliance.