The off-late fast selling car from General Motors is planning to launch the diesel version in India soon. The initial launch of the petrol version was on the occasion of the last Auto Expo in this January. The move is followed by the unprecedented demand for Beat, said its VP. GM’s range of cars in India include Tavera, Optra, Cruze, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, Spark, Captiva and Beat, produced from its Halol and Talegaon plants. The sale in 2009 was 69579 units and the target for this year is 1 lakh, he added. He elaborated that the new Beat invited a wait period of 30-40 days reflecting its stunning demand. Yet he clarified that the net sale was solely due to Spark and not from Beat, as it saw 30000 units of Spark out of the growth of 113%.
As of now there is no proposal to introduce petrol version of Cruze since the sale is making thumping response. The optional launch is the current diesel version of Beat, he said. In addition there will be 5 more new launches at the investment of Rs5000 crore, which includes utility vehicles and two passenger cars. The company gets a meager level of export – just 2%- which is expected to increase by way of Spark and Beat to Nepal, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Bhutan. He explained that customers have the tendency to change their existing cars after four years. They prefer exchange or new cars by shedding off their old cars, he said. This comes due to the offer exclusively given by GM- a three year warranty. GM’s performance in Tamilnadu seems to double this year as it has sold 4079 units last year which is to become 9000 units in 2010, he said. GM’s sale point in India numbers 207 of which Tamilnadu has 12 which may increase to 300 this year. The sale in July was with 7124 units which indicated a 45% growth against the same period in 2009.