The Indian subsidiary of US based leading car maker General Motors has said that it is shifting its focus to tier-II cities and smaller towns in the country in a bid to boost its sales.
In a recent statement given to ET, Karl Slym, General Motors India president and managing director, said, "In smaller towns, the impact of slowdown is very little as people there don't rely much on car loans. With good monsoon in the hindsight and good signs this year too, people in rural India are much comfortable."
The company now plans to launch 50 new outlets in the Indian auto market, all of which will be in smaller cities and towns. The new dealerships will take the total number of GMI dealers to 300 by this year end.
While elaborating on the changed dynamics in the Indian automobile industry, Mr. Slym said, "A couple of years back, we would have our 60% per sales from metros and 40% from non metros. But now the figures have been reversed. “ He added that now with even deeper penetration in smaller cities, the company expects the sales contribution from smaller centres to go up to 70%.
In the current fiscal, the company aims to register a growth of about 20 to 25 percent by selling 1.4 lakh units of its cars in the Indian auto market as compared to 1.1 lakh units sold in the same month last year.
