GM India working on new strategy to counter sluggish sales

GM India is believed to be working on a new strategy to counter sluggish sales, under-utilisation of capacity and accumulated losses. The American automaker is believed to be working on a plan that will focus on exports and its entry into other sections of the market like the rapidly expanding compact sedan segment.

A report from the Economic Times suggests that the new compact sedan, currently codenamed MCM, will be launched alongside the next generation Beat hatchback in 2017.However, this launch is expected to happen before GM puts into place its global emerging market cars platform a.k.a Project Amber. It is also possible that GM maybe working on at least one hatchback based crossover that will slot in under the Trax when it is launched.  

However, what appears to be a major part of the plan will be exports. India has emerged as a major hub for production and consequently exports. With GM not being able to utilise its production capacity and it losing sales in the domestic market, this seems to be next and rather logical step.  

It has already begun exporting the Beat to Chile and looks set to add at least another 10 destinations over the course of the next two years. The report quotes an unnamed source from the company who has said that it plans to export 30 per cent of its total production by 2017. 

GM, despite offering a strong portfolio of products, remains a marginal player in the market. It is ultimately evident that for it to succeed here, it will have to adapt India specific strategies to sell its products.   

Source:ET