GM to make India Asia-Pacific hub for power-trains

Unperturbed by the Mumbai terror attacks and its ongoing struggle to avoid bankruptcy back home, US auto major General Motors said on Monday it is making India power-trains development hub for Asia-Pacific region.

The company's Indian subsidiary General Motors India has already announced a total of $500 million investments in the country to set up new car and power-train manufacturing facilities and it will be hiring 500 people in the second-half of next year.

"With our engineering facility in Bangalore as the foundation of our business in India, we are making the country the development hub of power-trains for Asia-Pacific region," GMI president and managing director Karl Slym told PTI.

Considering the fact that the hub will cover countries like Australia, China, Korea, choosing India as the location is a significant decision, he added.

The company, which employs a total of 1,600 people in its engineering and research and development centre at Bangalore, will be enhancing the manpower strength there.

"In the second-half of next year we may hire a total of 500 people, out of which 300 will be for the engineering division and 200 for manufacturing at Talegaon," Slym said.

He said while the initial focus would be on development, GMI would also look at making India a power-train manufacturing hub as well in due course of time.

"We will have capacity beyond domestic consumption so we will definitely look at exports. Since the engines developed in India will be of small displacements, we will look at markets in Asia-Pac region and Eastern Europe," he said.

General Motors has a total of eight R&D centres across the world, including that in India, while it has 11 engineering centres globally.

In August, GMI had announced setting up of a new power-train facility at Talegaon with an initial investment of over $200 million.

This is in addition to more than $300 million already invested in the vehicles manufacturing facility, which has a capacity of 300,000 units.

The power-train unit has a capacity of making 200,000 units a year. It is expandable up to 300,000 engines per year.

Slym said the recent terror attack is Mumbai will not affect the company's plans.

"I don't see it affecting long-term business plans. Our long-term plans for India remain intact," he said. The company has been in fact stepping up enhancing operations, specially in the sales and service network in India.

"This year started with 100 dealers and service centres, we will end it with 190. We have also tied up with BPCL to open GM certified service centres," he said.

"BPCL has 500 stations in India and there is a huge scope of expanding out service network in partnership with them," Slym added. GMI will be launching two new cars next year -- sedan Cruze and a mini car.

On the bankruptcy fears of its parent in the US, Slym said the company was confident of getting support to the assistance plan on a loan basis.

The Big-Three US carmakers -- GM, Ford and Chrysler -- had asked the government to provide low-cost loan of $25 billion to save the companies. They will be making presentation of a business plan to the Congress on Tuesday.

GMI has, however, maintained it is making investments in India on its own and the financial troubles faced by the parent will have little impact here.