Car majors chalk out ambitious expansion plans

New Delhi, Sep 3 (UNI) With an aim to fully-exploit the growing purchasing power of the middle class, major players in the Indian auto industry have lined up ambitious plans for expansion and growth.

While General Motors India, which has a 3.1 per cent market share in India, last month announced to invest Rs 1,300 crore in Pune for a small car facility, and has a vision to tap 10 per cent share in the automobile market 2010 by selling at least 2 lakh vehicles.

GM India, which is launching the Spark small car early next year, plans a 1.4 lakh unit in Talegaon near Pune in addition to its 85,000 unit capacity in Halol, Gujarat.

Among the recent announcements, Tata-Fiat will invest Rs 2,000 crore to set up a one-lakh unit factory in Pune.

The latest to join the expansion brigade is Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), which will set up its second manufacturing plant, which will produce 300,000 units per annum, raising HMIL's total production capacity to 600,000 per annum by 2007.

Premium cars maker Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) will also double the production capacity of its manufacturing unit at Greater Noida from 50,000 cars to 100,000 cars per annum by the end of 2007. ''HMIL is investing to expand capacity in line with its positioning as Honda Motor Company's global export hub for compact cars. Apart from expansion of production capacity, HMIL plans to expand its dealer network, which will be increased from 157 to 200 this year,'' the company said while releasing its January-August sales here.

With HMIL's greater focus on the quality of its after-sales service, the company's service network will be expanded to over 1,000 during the year, the statement added.

HMIL posted a 19.2 per cent rise in sales in January-August at 198,625 vehicles over the January-August sales in 2005.

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