General Motors expects India sales to cross one lakh next year

US automaker General Motors expects car sales in India to cross the one lakh-unit mark in 2010 with its proposed ₹four-lakh small car Beat set to hit the market early next year.

General Motors India (GMI), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Detroit-based firm, is targeting its sales to be over 70,000 units this year against 65,702 units in 2008.

'We will launch Beat beginning of next year, we have great hope for 2010. We are now talking of about 40 per cent growth next year,' GMI President and Managing Director Karl Slym told PTI.

The company would produce the car at its Talegaon facility, which has a production capacity of 1.4 lakh units per annum.

'Currently we are working on single shift at Talegaon. Once Beat is launched, we will start producing in two shifts,' Slym said.

GM, the erstwhile largest carmaker of the world by sales before overtaken by Toyota, started its India operations in 1994 by forming a 50:50 joint venture with Hindustan Motors. It became the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US firm in 1999.

GM India manufactures Optra Magnum, Aveo, SRV, Aveo U-VA, Spark, Tavera and Captiva for the Indian market from its two facilities in Talegaon and Halol, which together have an annual capacity of 2.