GM's India plans clearer

General Motors, which has been in talks with its Chinese partners SAIC and Wuling for bringing their products to India, is likely to finalise plans on the type of vehicles and manufacturing road map soon.

General Motors India President and Managing Director Karl Slym told PTI in an interview that talks that started about eight months back with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) and Wuling to explore possibilities of bringing light commercial vehicles to India have reached the stage of product identification.

"Now we know what can work in India and what cannot...We are at a position, (where) very very soon we should be able to make a decision on what all or what not we can do together here," he said.

Slym, however, added that at present no understanding or an agreement has been reached.

GM, which is a party in a tripartite joint venture in China -- SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co -- is looking beyond the commercial vehicles that can be brought to India through their partnership.

"I think the company has vehicles beyond the commercial vehicles. They also would be very successful if we adapted them through our engineering centre into India," Slym said.

SAIC-GM-Wuling sells both commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles, including Wuling brand minivans, Wuling brand mini-trucks and the Chevrolet Spark mini-car.

Asked if the nature of relationship that GM was looking at with its Chinese partners (SAIC and Wuling) for India included equity or just technical collaboration, Slym said: "It could be anything. The main interest for me is to bring the vehicles that they have, which are all saleable in India."

He said GM is keen on manufacturing the vehicles in India, as the company has two facilities here.

"I continue to think that there is a strong benefit for us to be able to form some kind of relationship here in India with what our partners in China has to offer," he said.

The commercial vehicles segment offered a lot of opportunities as there is limited competition, he said.

"I still think there is an opportunity for commercial vehicle and those people who have got their vehicles in that area have got it easy at the moment. There is not enough competition," Slym said.

Stressing that partnerships is the way forward for the company to be a significant player in the Indian automobile market, he said: "It is a way that you have to look to be able to share capabilities for the future, not everybody can do everything everywhere."