Chevrolet says Goodbye to India

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017 Siddharth Sharma 0 Comments Chevrolet

General Motors announced on Thursday that it will stop selling Chevrolet vehicles in India by the end of this year. The world’s third largest carmaker has failed to crack the code of selling cars in Inida even after two decades of its arrival in the country. Chevrolet is not the first GM owned brand to exit India, and we have witnessed exit of Deawoo and Opel previously.

The company presently has no plan to resume Chevrolet sales in India or bring in any new brand, said the company’s country head Kaher Kazem in a media conference call after the announcement. That said, GM will continue to export vehicles from its plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra.

He added: “The decision follows a comprehensive review of future product plans for GM India and is part of a global restructuring.” Interestingly, two years earlier CEO of GM, Mary Barra announced that they will invest $1 billion for the Indian operations. But due to lack of sales, the company struggled to make profits and decided to shut Halol plant in Gujarat and now comes the announcement to seize domestic sales.

“We explored many options, but determined the increased investment originally planned for India would not deliver the returns of other significant global opportunities,” its statement quoted Stefan Jacoby, executive vice-president of GM International, as saying. “It would also not help us achieve a leadership position or compelling, long-term profitability in the domestic market.”

The automaker promises to offering after-sales services and support to existing customers. And Kazem said that the spare parts for existing models will be available “well beyond their warranty period”. He added that the company will leverage India’s strong supply base for exports. “We recently launched the new Chevrolet Beat hatchback for export to Mexico and Central and South American markets and will launch the Chevrolet Beat sedan later this year for those markets.

We could sense this when this news came out earlier this year- Billion Dollar Investment Curtailed by GM and GM India freezes New Product Development Budget

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Siddharth Sharma

Siddharth has always been passionate about Cars and Bikes. He was the kind of kid that always had the latest Auto magazine in his school bag. He had this dream- to become a professional racecar driver. Finally, in 2012 he found himself racing as a rookie driver in the Polo R Cup national racing championship. Over time he had to readjust the sail and get into automotive journalism to continue enjoying machines on wheels.

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