General Motors India today launched Chevrolet Forester, a sports utility vehicle (SUV) from the stables of one of its Japanese alliance partners, Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries).
The vehicle, which is called the Subaru Forester in the Japanese and south east Asian markets, has been priced at Rs 15.59 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), leading impending competition in this virgin product segment (SUV) also to adopt similar price positioning, which also clashes with the price positioning of the various D-segment sedans.
General Motors has a 20 per cent stake in Fuji Heavy Electric, and has an arrangement to market Subaru vehicles in countries outside Japan. It has already launched the vehicle in Indonesia and The Philippines prior to the India launch.
The new vehicle to be imported in completely built up (CBU) form from Japan, will be available in select dealerships from March 10. GM is also looking at augmenting its dealership strength now that it has two brands of vehicles to handle in India.
The company has already announced that it will use the Chevrolet umbrella to launch its mainstream products, while Opel will have a premium positioning.
The Forester is the first product GM has launched under the Chevrolet brand in India. During the year, it is expected to launch several new vehicles including a variant of the Daewoo Lacetti (a mid-size sedan) and an Isuzu vehicle under the same brand umbrella.
GM India president and managing director Aditya Vij, however, denied that any programme had been finalised for vehicles from Daewoo, a company whose assets GM has acquired in Korea and some other countries overseas. In India, the Daewoo plant is shut.
Fuji executives said they could consider assembly operations with GM only if the annual market size of the vehicle was 10,000 units. But GM has decided to import only 500 vehicles this year and 1,000 units from the next year.
GM India is hoping to sell over 16,000 units during 2003. Vij said he was aiming at a annual turnover of 50,000 units by 2005.
Raymond G. Grigg, president and representative director, GM Asia Pacific (Japan) said GM was working on several new vehicles for India, including those from the Daewoo stables.
