Unperturbed by the Mumbai terror attacks and its ongoing struggle to avoid bankruptcy back home, US auto major General Motors today said it is making India power-trains development hub for Asia-Pacific region.
The company's Indian subsidiary General Motors India (GMI) has already announced a total of $500 million investments in the country to set up new car and power-train manufacturing facilities and it will be hiring 500 people in the second-half of next year.
"With our engineering facility in Bangalore as the foundation of our business in India, we are making the country the development hub of power-trains for Asia-Pacific region," GMI President and Managing Director Karl Slym told PTI.
Considering the fact that the hub will cover countries like Australia, China, Korea, choosing India as the location is a significant decision, he added.
The company, which employs a total of 1,600 people in its engineering and research and development centre in Bangalore, will be enhancing the manpower strength there.
"In the second-half of next year we may hire a total of 500 people, out of which 300 will be for the engineering division and 200 for manufacturing at Talegaon," Slym said.
He said while the initial focus would be on development, GMI would also look at making India a power-train manufacturing hub as well in due course of time.
"We will have capacity beyond domestic consumption so we will definitely look at exports. Since the engines developed in India will be of small displacements, we will look at markets in Asia-Pacific region and Eastern Europe," he said.
General Motors has a total of eight R&D centres across the world, including that in India, while it has 11 engineering centres globally.
