Shanghai, April 7 (Gasgoo.com) SAIC Motor Corp expects its India joint venture with General Motors to generate profits within three years by selling low-cost small cars, Reuters reported today, citing the Chinese auto giant's chairman.
The Indian car market will grow to 5 million units a year in five years from 2 million now, and was SAIC's most important market outside China, SAIC Chairman Hu Maoyuan said today in an interview in Taipei where he is accompanying the mayor of Shanghai on a visit.
"We want to build a stable base there, then we can compete in the whole of southeast Asia," Hu told Reuters, adding that SAIC will increase capital at its China auto financing venture with GM by some 50% to 3 billion yuan ($440 mln). He sees at least 10% growth in China's auto market this year.
SAIC, China's largest automaker, runs vehicle manufacturing ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen AG. Its net profit for 2009 jumped 900%, reaching a record of 6.6 bln yuan. Its sales goal for this year is to exceed 3 million vehicles, up from 2.72 million units in 2009.
SAIC has become a major shareholder of GM's Indian unit. This year, the SAIC-GM India venture will release light commercial vehicles (LCVs) produced by the new joint venture, and will also launch the electric version of GM's small car Spark by the year end.
