GM to expand Halol plant to make Shanghai Automotive's vehicles

General Motors India Pvt. Ltd (GMI), an arm of US auto major GM, will invest around $250 million (Rs137.5 crore) to expand its factory at Halol, 46 km from Vadodara in Gujarat, to produce five models it plans to introduce in the country.

''We intend to start production of five new vehicles by the end of next year,'' said president and managing director Karl Slym. "Already modification of Halol plant has been initiated as the facility was designed as per the car manufacturing point of view. Now we are making body and paint shop bigger apart from new assembly lines for commercial vehicles."

He added, ''The new vehicles are chosen from the portfolio of our Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industries Motor Corp Ltd (SAIC), including three passenger cars and two light commercial vehicles (LCVs).''

The parent General Motors Co has been associated with SAIC Motor, China's largest car maker, since the 1990s.

''These vehicles will be manufactured at our Halol plant in Gujarat as it is more suitable for LCVs because this facility already produces Chevrolet Tavera,'' Slym said on Wednesday. ''To facilitate this additional production, we will invest around $250 million to expand our Halol capacity to 100,000 units per annum from the current 85,000 units.'' The manufacturing will begin by the end of 2011, he added.

GMI has already invested around Rs2,000 crore in the Halol factory, which employs at least 1,200 people. ''We are currently running two shifts at our Halol plant and two shifts at Talegaon plant in Maharashtra,'' Slym said. ''We will add one more shift at the Halol plant when the production of new vehicles begins.''