GM India aims to double exports from India

The Dollar Business Bureau

General Motors India is planning to double is exports to touch 50,000 units this year from 21,000 units last year. With a capacity of 1.3 lakh vehicles, its Talegaon facility in Maharashtra will become its export hub in India. More than 30% of the manufactured units from here will be exported to the other countries. It has launched the first left-hand drive Chevrolet Beat for export to Argentina on Monday.

GM India has first exported its cars from India to Chile in September 2014. It has dispatched 3,000 Chevrolet Beat cars to Mexico in October 2015. The left-hand drive Chevrolet Beat is also exported to Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Central American and Caribbean Countries (CAC). Now Argentina has become the sixth Latin American country having potential market for the export of this hatchback. The company will dispatch the first shipment in June this year.

Chevrolet Beat is available in more than 70 markets worldwide. It is sixth among the top most exported cars with 37,082 units dispatched from India in FY 2016. In February, it was ranked third among the top exported models from the country after Ford Ecosport and Nissan Micra. Beat has recorded the maximum growth in this fiscal among all passenger vehicles that have been exported from the country.

GM India President and MD Kaher Kazem said that new export market is a testimony to the company’s commitment to offer quality standards to worldwide customers. GM follows the highest manufacturing standards for delivering high quality vehicles to the customers in India or any part of the world.

In this year, the company plans to double its exports when compared to the previous year. This is part of GM’s strategy to increase the capacity utilisation at Talegaon plant. It has plans to make India an export hub for global markets. Also the company is in the process of identifying more export markets in future, Kazem said.