D Nick Reilly, president, Asia Pacific, spoke to Business Standard on the Indian market.

You expected 10 per cent share of the Indian market by 2010 assuming that its size would be about 2 million cars. Are you reassessing the numbers?

Yes, we are. Frankly the market in India has been adjusted up by us and most others in the last 6-9 months. We have put in a capacity of 225,000 that could have got us to 10 per cent on the previous assumption. Now the decision we have to take is, should we take the 10 per cent target down or find new vehicles from somewhere. We are looking at options.

The first option or the second?

Our vision is 10 per cent, but instead of 2010, it might be a bit later if the market expands and we have to build more capacity. Our new plant is so designed that we can double capacity very quickly. We will have taken a final call on expansion in the next 12-18 months. Our projection is that the market will be around 3 million by 2011-2012.

You will require more cars which give you volumes.

If the market grows, much of it will come from small- and mini-segments. So we are in the right segment, though we might look at other segments too. There is the $2,000-3,000 car being built by the Tatas. But Chevrolet doesn't stand for that market. And we don't have a plan to introduce a brand lower than Chevrolet.

Eventually we will have two models in this segment that is why we will introduce the M-300 in India.

Is GM looking for tie-ups?

We run a fully-owned company in India and we have both the products and the distribution channel to sell our cars. So we do not have an immediate need to have a local partner. We have a relationship with Suzuki globally and on certain aspects there may be opportunities to share components with Maruti Suzuki.

GM has been bullish at sourcing of components from India.

We are increasing the localisation rate. With the mini (Spark), we will start from day one with 45-50 per cent and get it up to 60-70 per cent without power train very fast.

Secondly, volumes itself drive high purchases. We are putting purchasing people in India separate from GM India's requirement in India to buy locally for the globe.