GM expects to double sales in India this year

General Motors expects to double sales in India this year and to double its share in that market longer term with the addition of commercial vehicles it plans to begin making with its joint-venture partner, China's SAIC.

"We're doing incredibly well with passenger cars. We're going to double our volume this year," Tim Lee, president of GM's international operations told Reuters on the sidelines of the Beijing auto show.

GM expects sales in India to nearly double in 2010 from 2009 levels, topping 130,000 cars from near 70,000.

In addition, Lee said that the GM's international operations had contributed to what executives led by Chief Executive Ed Whitacre have described as a "solid" first quarter.

GM's international operations, including sales in China, India, Russia, the Middle East and Africa "will contribute significantly to the company" in the first quarter, Lee said.

"I would just say as a reflection on what Mr. Whitacre has said that it was a very solid performance," Lee said.

Earlier this month, GM reported a $4.3 billion 2009 net loss covering the period from its emergence from bankruptcy in July 2009 through the end of the year, in the automaker's first full account of its new balance sheet as a restructured company.

"The last 18 months in the U.S. were very, very difficult for us. But as we came through bankruptcy in July, the momentum has really swung our way," Lee told Reuters.

Lee, 59, rose up the ranks of GM's manufacturing operations after graduating from GM's in-house university then known as GMI and oversaw efforts to slash capacity in the United States as the financial crisis deepened for the U.S. automaker from 2007.

He was dispatched to Shanghai in December as part of an executive shake-up engineered by Whitacre, shortly after he took over as CEO. In a change in GM's organization, Lee was given responsibility for sales in Asia led by China, as well as Africa, the Middle East and Russia.

Those markets represent over 40 percent of GM's global sales and are on track to become a majority of sales in coming years. That puts the China-based operations headed by Lee at the center of prospective interest in an IPO that the Detroit-based automaker is preparing to launch as soon as this year.