GM India immune to bankruptcy shock

General Motors ‘bankruptcy issue that had hit the headlines a couple of days back shook the automotive industry to its core. It was quite natural that the focus suddenly shifted to GM India, the Indian subsidiary of General motors, as a normal fall-out of this piece of news. Armed before-hand to fend off the concerns, GM India came up with the most logic explanations that cleared the air of doubt about company’s stability.

They said that the bankruptcy petition filed by the parent establishment will actually strengthen US manufacturer as the judge has the power to waive the obligations and contracts that’s unaffordable to the company. This will help the brand to reemerge like a phoenix and become more competitive.

Moreover, General motor considers Indian market as a key area to bank on in their revival strategy. General Motors’ decision to enter small car segment will actually help the GM India. This gives the Indian subsidiary extra confidence to go ahead with the small car projects in India.

As the parent establishment views India as a mini car market that would attract demand for small car from other world markets, GM India is sure that the Indian customers, suppliers, dealers and all other stakeholders will read what is written on the wall. This positions GM India at a safer place to confront the itches of bankruptcy issue related to its parent company to serve other markets across the world.

Chevrolet Spark Rejoices Three Million Customers

Chevrolet Spark is a leading compact car in the Indian car market. The car successfully crosses three million customers globally. And this is a sure sign of Spark’s credibility in the market.

 

Celebrating the sales of Spark, General Motors announces car discounts on its entire range of car models in India. The manufacturer announces a discount of Rs 55,000 on the Chevrolet Spark, Rs 50,000 on Chevrolet Aveo, Rs 28,000 on Chevrolet Tavera, Rs 30,000 on Chevrolet UVA, and Rs 70,000 on Chevrolet Optra Magnum.

 

Chevrolet is gradually making its position in the Indian car market. The company is gaining popularity for producing fuel-efficient, reliable, and quality cars to suit the needs of Indian car buyers. And a sale of three million Spark is a momentum that will further enhance brand recognition and brand popularity.

The New Concept of Cars

The Indian car industry is flooded with cars from every segment. We also have the world’s cheapest car Nano, which has created sensation in the car industry globally. Now the latest concept is ‘Made in India’ cars. These cars would be engineered and designed in India using technical expertise and creative imaginations. The vast pool of talented professionals and designers in India are in demand by global car manufacturers.

Car majors like General Motors, Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) and Volkswagen. General Motors truly Indian compact car is expected by 2009.Maruti Suzuki is in race to produce completely built Indian cars.. Volkswagen is still under the developmental stage for producing Indian cars.

The global car A-star, which was recently launched in India, can be called ‘Indian’ to some extent, as it was exclusively produced in India. The recent launch of A-star from Maruti Suzuki has set a new benchmark in the industry.

General Motors Ready to Start Face Book Community

General Motors is geared up and is soon to start with a facebook community. This initiative is taken to connect potential car buyers. It is a new marketing strategy and the reason behind is due to the increasing use of online media and social communities where a huge mass of people discuss and exchange their personal views.

However the company is set to start its own community and will target online marketing and other promotional activities. A dedicated team of expertise with good technical as well as internet knowledge will rule this plan.

It is also conceived that the digital medium has the best ROI (Return on Investment) for car manufacturers and GM wants to share a huge piece of the successful online channels. The best way to recognize how to spend sensibly is through ROI marketing and also get good returns on the marketing investment.

Already the company has tried it out with Chevrolet Captiva and it has been successful in making good sales by using this strategy.

General Motors Ready to Set Up Used-Car Outlets

Due to the rising interest rates, the car buyers are postponing purchase of new cars. This year has been a tough time for many of the car manufacturers and this has mainly turned down the car sales.

However, General Motors has taken a good step by planning to launch pre-owned car business. The company senses that it can make some profits by selling the old cars.

The company is geared up to expand rapidly its used car business countrywide. It is not only going to sell its own cars but also other cars also. However, General Motors is the second company after Mahindra and Mahindra to sell other cars in the pre-owned car business.

With a sluggish market, General Motors India has taken a good decision by planning to make its entry in the pre-owned car market.

Continental AG sets up an Electronic Manufacturing plant in India

Even with so many fluctuations happening with the Indian car market structure there is one more automotive company that has established its plant in India. The German automotive major, Continental AG, has set up a Greenfield plant in India’s IT focusing to manufacture electronic components for the growing automobile market in the sub-continent.However this plant is located in the Bommasandra Industrial Area on the outskirts of the Bangalore city and has made an investment of Rs 2.2 billion high-tech facility, with a research and development centre.

This centre will manufacture instrument clusters for cars, commercial vehicles and two-wheelers, electronic control units for power-assisted steering and body control units for interiors, immobilizers and engine management systems for diesel and gasoline engines,.

The company senses that the flourishing Indian automotive market has become deliberately important for them to expand their business in the sub-continent.

However the Continental AG is catering electronic components and systems to Indian global OEMs like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra, General Motors, Ford, and Skoda.

Car manufacturers magnetize the buyers by promotional schemes and discounts

Car buyers can now think a step ahead to buy cars as many of the car makers are offering enormous discounts and promotional schemes. This is essentially done to attract customers to showrooms and remove the negative sentiments that have bothered many of them due to the high interest rates, ever rising fuel cost, inflation and mounting costs of raw materials.

India’s major car manufacturers are offering great discounts like the General Motors has announced a special discount price of Rs 26000 on its entry-level compact Spark. The company had initially sold the car for Rs 3.33 lakh and gave an exceptional offer of selling it at Rs 2.92 lakh, but now it has further cut down to Rs 2.66 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

However this special price is offered as a result of improved localization on the Spark coming out of operational efficiencies due to the increase in production volume. And the interesting factor is the discount comes on top of the special three-year free service package offer on Spark.

Apart from General Motors many other companies are also offering gracious discounts like Maruti Suzuki is offering a cash discount schemes for the models WagonR and Zen Estilo offers Rs 21,000 cash discount. The Maruti 800 and Versa have discounts of Rs 5,000 each and the Alto of Rs 10,000. Even Hyundai is also offering a free fuel voucher worth Rs 2,700 with every Santro and i10. The company is also planning to offer a ‘reduced EMI’ scheme when people upgrade to its cars. And even Tata Motors is also offering discount on its cars. So wake up folks the ball is in your court!