GM India to start exports

General Motors India said it would begin exporting vehicles from the country and start selling a left-hand-drive version of its Chevrolet Beat hatchback to Chile in the first quarter of 2015.

The company said it would begin production of the cars meant for export at its Talegaon plant in Maharashtra, in the second half of this year. General Motors has two factories in India that can build a combined 282,000 vehicles annually but it has using utilising less than a third of their total capacity.

GM sold nearly 81,000 passenger vehicles in India in the year ended March for a market share of 3.2 per cent, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Global automobile makers, including Ford Motor, are keen on making India a regional export hub, especially for small cars.