Chennai: General Motors India, the Indian subsidiary of General Motors Corp, has launched the new Chevrolet Tavera Neo-2 in the country.

The company has also said it would be introducing two car models and some variants of existing cars by next year. This includes a CNG variant of the 1-litre 'Spark'.
GM had earlier announced that it planned to increase its market share to 10 per cent by 2010 from the current 4 per cent on the back of new car launches.

Speaking in Chennai, General Motors India president and managing director Karl Slym, the Tavera Neo-2 model has been priced at Rs9.58 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).

Elaborating on the new cars to be launched next year Slym said. "Of the two cars one may be in the 'mini-car', while the other would be in the 'premium sedan' segment" Slym said.

He said the cars would be manufactured from its Talegaon plant, near Pune and the Halol facility in Gujarat.

General Motors India director and vice-president (corporate affairs) P Balendran speaking about the new car launches said one of the new cars could be smaller or similar to that of the Spark or even a higher version. He said, ''We are not in a position to disclose details at this point of time.''

GM India's earlier version of 'Tavera' sold around 16,000 units last year and based on the feedback of customers the new variant have been launched. The company is now targeting selling around 20,000 units of the new model this year but has no plans to phase out the existing model.

The company also plans to increase its sales points from 145 to 188 and the service outlets to 190 from 148 by the end of 2008.

Despite the slowdown in the economy GM India expects to end the year with a 20 per cent growth over last year at 70,000 to 80,000 units.
 Balendran said, ''We are looking at anywhere between 70,000 and 80,000 units as compared to 60,000 units last year,'' he said.

Spark has done well during the festive season and the company sold nearly 60,000 cars till October and is on target to achieve the target, he added.

The SUV Captiva has been the market leader with a market share of 22 per cent and as against its annual target of 800 to 1000 units, the company has already sold nearly 2,500 Captivas and hopes to end up around 3,000 units. On the MUV side, as against the target of 20,000 Taveras, the company has already sold 16,000 units and is on target to achieve it.