Bankrupt US auto giant General Motors yesterday listed India among the "very important" markets that held the key to its turnaround and said it hoped to achieve a double digit share by 2010 on the back of higher sales of mini cars. The company will roll out a slew of models, including a small car priced at around Rs400,000.

The company also said it will achieve a growth rate of 10 per cent in 2009 despite a fall in sales in the first five months of this year.

"The mini car will be in the upper end of the mini-car segment," General Motors India president and managing director Karl Slym told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the LPG version of its small car, Chevrolet Spark.

Slym noted that GM has already invested around Rs1,000 crore at its Talegaon plant near Pune in Maharashtra for the manufacture of engine transmissions, and around Rs1,500 crore for a car manufacturing facility there. Once the former facility is completed next year, GM would increase localisation across all its Chevrolet models.

The small car, which will be developed on the platform of GM's concept car Beat, will be manufactured exclusively at GM India's Talegaon facility for serving the domestic as well as export markets.

"As of now, the mini car will be manufactured in Korea and India. From India, we are also planning to export to the Asia Pacific region and European countries, which could start by 2010," Slym said.

"US, China and India are among the key markets for the new GM that has been formed after bankruptcy. While home market US is certainly the most important, China is equally important as it is big in numbers where we sold one million units. India is also a key as opportunities here are similar," Slym said.

The company has started a series of new campaigns to shrug the negative effects of the bankruptcy news. Being splashed across the internet and newspapers, these reassuring campaigns include "Chevrolet Confidence" where the company signs off with a "There for you, there for India" tagline, reiterating its commitment to the market in terms of investments, sales and service, and new model launches.

GM India sold 65,702 cars and SUVs in India last year, 9.5 per cent more than a year earlier. And despite the not-so-encouraging start to this year, Slym expected a similar growth rate for 2009 as well on the back of new model launches. The company has decided to hold on to its 10 per cent market share target in India by 2010, which appears ambitious considering it just had around 3.5 per cent share last year.

Currently, the company sells the Spark and the U-VA in the segment, the former accounting for the majority of sales.

"Apart from the new mini that would be available in both petrol and diesel options, we would also be launching the Cruze sedan here in the coming months. These models will add to our portfolio and help us strengthen our numbers," Slym said.

He denied that the company was facing difficulty in getting funding for the company's engine plant. "The powertrain plant remains on schedule for end 2010. Everything is on schedule and we are confident of getting the funds for it though a mix of various sources, that includes internal accruals, financial institutions and GM Asia-Pacific," he said.

Earlier this week, GM Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly had said that in India most of the $200 million needed to complete a new engine factory and other projects had yet to be raised, but it was pursuing other sources of financing and expected no delays in the projects.