Amidst robust car sales, General Motors India today set an ambitious target of crossing the one-lakh-mark sales figure this year and said towards this, it will expand the dealerships to 300 from the existing 206 by end of this year.
"Last year we sold close to 70,000 units and this year we plan to sell around one lakh units," GM India managing director Karl Slym told newsmen at the launch of the CNG version of mid-size sedan Chervolet Aveo here today.
Slym further said in the first part of the year GM registered a 139-per cent growth in sales against the industry growth of 37-38 per cent.
"Our effort is to put in place around 300 sales points from the existing 206, and also have an equal number of authorised service outlets from the existing 200," Slym said.
During the first four months of this year GM sold around 43,000 units, against around 18,000 units in the same period last year, company vice-president for corporate affairs P Balendran said, adding Gujarat contributes nearly 10 per cent to GM's overall sales, after the Delhi region. "We sell close to 1,100 cars a month in Gujarat," he said.
Slym said GM India is a 50-50 joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group (SAIC) of China since this February," Slym said. Late last year, GM Asia-Pacific entered into an equity partnership with SAIC.
"We have chosen light commercial vehicles from the SAIC JV to be manufactured at Halol. We aim to tap 40 per cent market in the country. We have currently no presence in the non-car automotive market here," Slym said.
"Production of LCVs is expected to commence by the end of 2011," Slym said, adding "by then we expect to have a vendor base of close to 200 from the existing 150."
Launching the CNG Aveo, Slym said the new model, which is BS-IV-complaint, is being manufactured at the Halol facility. This new Aveo is a bi-fuel car and comes for Rs 6,26,645 and will be competing with the CNG models of the Logan of Mahindra-Renault and the Accent of Hyundai.