Chevrolet Quits India But GM Will Keep Making Cars Here For Exports

The company will still be using India as an export hub and we will see cars being made in India and shipped out to Mexico and Central and South American markets. GM will be using its Talegaon plant for this purpose and the Halol plant in Gujarat, which ceased operations recently, will be sold to its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor Corp.

By Carandbike Team

1 mins read

Published on May 18, 2017

Highlights

Chevrolet will stop selling cars in India by the end of this year
The Talegaon plant will continue manufacturing cars for export markets
The Beat and its derivations will not be launched in India

General Motors has decided to exit India and this is a significant blow to India's strategy of encouraging domestic manufacturing. This has affected the company's plans for India too and so there will be no new cars coming our way. There will be no Beat or its derivations that will be making its way to India. However, the company will still be using India as an export hub and we will see cars being made in India and shipped out to Mexico and Central and South American markets. GM will be using its Talegaon plant for this purpose and the Halol plant in Gujarat, which ceased operations recently, will be sold to its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor Corp. We brought you some details when the news first broke out but now more details have poured in. Chevrolet's sales haven't picked up in FY 2016-17. The company sold just 25823 units in the last fiscal and its market share has dropped below 1 per cent in India and this after the company announced in 2015 that it targets to garner 3 per cent of the market share in India by 2020. However, it’s not all gloomy for GM India as exports saw a sharp climb from 37,052 units in 2015-16 to 70,969 units in FY 16-17. This is one reason why the company will still be using India as an export hub as the Talegaon plant has a capacity of manufacturing 130,000 vehicles a year. The new-gen Chevrolet Beat was all set to launch in July this year This decision does affect that current owners of Chevrolet cars as well and for those who are wondering what will happen to their cars, well the company says that "Chevrolet customers can rest assured the customer support center will remain open and all warranties and service agreements as well as ongoing service and parts requirements for all vehicles will continue to be honoured." In fact the company also mentions that it is committed to maintain a service network across key locations with staff trained to take care of all the needs for repair and maintenance. It will also continue supporting its customers with service and spare parts as well as honour warranties. Mind you, there will be no fresh warranties issued anymore. The company also says that it will continue supporting its customers with service and spare parts. Vehicle warranties and service commitments made to customers will also be honoured and Chevrolet will continue to provide service centre support along with 24/7 contact centre and roadside assistance support. The Chevrolet Cruze has been a successful model for the company in India GM unveiled in 2015 to invest $1 billion in India to deploy newly-designed vehicle architecture as part of a Global Emerging Market vehicle programme or GEM for short, and build a new line of low-cost vehicles in India and while that brought in a breath of relief for Chevrolet India, clearly no one could have foretold that operations will be shut. We wait to find out more and tell you all about it