GM expects its India sales to rise 43% on new models

General Motors Co., the automaker majority-owned by the U.S. government, expects its sales in India to rise 43 percent this year, helped by new models.

GM expects to sell at least 100,000 vehicles in the country compared with about 70,000 units sold last year, Karl Slym, managing director of the Indian unit, said in New Delhi today.

GM introduced the Chevrolet Beat in India today and expects the model to become its best-selling car as economic growth enables more people to buy an automobile, Slym said. The Detroit-based carmaker, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG are among companies building plants and introducing new models in China and India as the world's two fastest-growing major economies buck a global slump in vehicle demand.

"India is a very important market for GM," Slym said.

The automaker had 3.8 percent of India's passenger-car market in the year ended March 31, compared with market leader Suzuki Motor Corp.'s 52 percent share, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. GM was the fifth-largest automaker in the country last year.

GM, which currently has eight Chevrolet models in India, today said 2009 sales in China jumped 67 percent to a record.

The Beat, which will also be sold in 150 markets worldwide, will be a "key pillar of Chevrolet's growth strategy in India," the company said.

GM and SAIC Motor Corp., China's biggest automaker, will introduce their first vehicle in India next year, Slym said. The two companies will form an equally controlled venture in the first quarter of this year to make and sell small cars and mini- commercial vehicles in India.

The new venture, with an investment of about $650 million, may help Detroit-based GM grab a bigger share of India's vehicle market while giving SAIC a foothold in the world's second-most populous nation.

The Indian venture will be based in Hong Kong and will use GM's two manufacturing facilities and a powertrain plant in the country, the companies said. The venture may reach annual production of 225,000 vehicles by 2012.