Unperturbed by the Mumbai terror attacks and its ongoing struggle to avoid bankruptcy back home, US auto major General Motors today said it wants to make India a development hub for power-trains in the Asia-Pacific region.
The firm’s Indian subsidiary General Motors India (GMI) has already announced a slew of investments amounting to $500 million 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 said.
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 at 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 that while the initial focus would be on development, GMI would also look at making the country a power-train manufacturing hub as well.
“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-Pac region and Eastern Europe,” he said.
