General Motors Corp plans to launch a new small car in India in the second half of 2009, but has no plans to take on Tata Motor’s low-cost Nano, its India head said on Thursday.
BS reported that Maruti Suzuki planned to launch a 660 cc car in 2010. In Japan, the 600 cc range includes the Cervo Mode and the Alto. However, it also plans to upgrade the Omni engine to make it compliant with the latest emission norms and launch an executive sedan to compete with the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic.Mr Shinzo Nakanishi MD of Maruti Suzuki said “The Suzuki 660 cc car is a good car for the Indian market, but it will take some years to launch it here.”Mr Nakanishi said that several issues needed to be addressed before the 660 cc car was launched. One is the large investment Maruti has made on commissioning a plant for the K-series engine, which runs the A Star and soon to be launched Ritz. He said we have to recover this investment first. Once that happens, we’ll focus on the 660 cc car.
It will be a global car meant primarily for emerging markets and will have design inputs from India, Karly Slym said on the sidelines of a news conference.
The competition in the car market is driving car prices low as well as resulting in better products for the consumers. Considering the huge population of the country, India still has a vast unexplored market for cars. The competition has also made Indian auto companies deliver their best. Of late we have seen some really cool machines from even Indian players like Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti. Ritz is one of the latest cars from the stable of Maruti.
After the arrival of foreign car companies Indian car makers have done quite well and have proved their mettle. Of late Tata Motors has launched Nano, billed as the world’s least expensive car. The launch of Nano has generated free publicity worth millions of dollars for the company. It has generated interest all over the world like never before and highlighted the potentials of Indian car market and showed to the world the strength of the Indian cars. Nano is a fascinating car that symbolizes the might of the Indian car makers in the market where new cars by foreign companies are getting launched regularly. Other companies are also planning to come up with cheaper small cars for the consumers.