The expanding small car segment may be ruled by the giants like Maruti and Hyundai. But GM has got its own trump card that it will take up the challenge with its Beat. GM believes that its will be one among the best five selling cars in India. With the pricing to be on par with the market GM would like to boost the sale of Beat by double this year. The net total for this fiscal, according to its President, is 70000 units.
The Indian market had been the blessing in disguise for the company which saw the downfall in its apex country leading to bankruptcy. The cars which fetched hope for GM in India are Spark, Cruze, Tavera and Captiva taking the toll to 55363 cars till December 2009. Beat is likely to beat the storm of rivals –Maruti, Hyundai and Tata- that it has added features that are missing in them. It has 1.2lit petrol engine, power of 80ps to deliver 18.6km/lit and is priced Rs3.34lakhs still lesser than Hyundai i10 and Maruti A-Star and Swift.
GM’s target is 5000 units of Beat a month. The target customers are young generation – especially women, said the company’s VP. The unique feature of this Beat is that the diesel version is in the offing by the year end. Except Indica, no other car in this segment has diesel version. This is because the diesel versions are capable of changing the market trend for any car.