General Motors is in exploratory talks with Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp., to roll out light commercial vehicles in India. These would be the sub-one tonne minitruck - the same product sold in China under the brand name Wuling. It is widely believed that once launched, it would be pitted against Mahindra's upcoming LCV and Tata Motors' best-selling Ace model. Wuling has a whole range of mini trucks from 0.3-0.8 tonne loading capacity and its Sunshine 0.8 tonne mini-van has been a huge success in China. The Indian arm of the American auto major aims to attain domestic sales of 200,000 vehicles in the next five years, though the company has not projected any figures as nothing has been finalised yet.

GM is considering the Wuling models for India because it’s easier for the company to adapt existing platforms and technologies for faster introduction of vehicles, a senior representative of GM India told Bloomberg. However, he denied that SAIC is buying production facilities from GM in India as previously reported in the Chinese media.

It may be recalled that Jonathan Browning, VP, global sales & marketing, GM, was quoted as saying to the media more than six months back, “The Wuling brand is well-suited for the Indian market. It's definitely an opportunity for GM to launch these CVs in the country with product adjustments. Entering the CV market is the most logical step to strengthen its portfolio. However, Jonathan declined to specify a time line for the launch of the vehicles in India. He had also said that the plans are still at a very preliminary stage and therefore it is difficult to say if they would be imported or assembled here, but India is definitely one of the opportunities.

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile is a joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) of China and Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. Based at the Liuzhou, Guangxi small van factory, it is the manufacturer of vehicles sold in China under the Wuling marque and specializes in trucks and van sales in the poorer interior of the country.

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