Pritpal S Kular, Vice President Human Resources, GM India said, "The agreement is effective from the 1st of April 2017 and runs until 31st March 2020 and is an important step in our plan to consolidate GM India's manufacturing at the Talegaon plant in Maharashtra."
General Motors India has been struggling to catch a break as far as products are concerned. The company had announced that it had put on hold its investments on new models for the country as the US auto major undertakes a full review of its future product portfolio here.
GM India currently commands less than 1 per cent share in the domestic passenger vehicle market and it's sales have dropped by nearly 40 per cent in the last fiscal year. A slump in sales brought together with a clampdown on diesel vehicles proved to be quite a problem for the carmaker which is why it did not bring the Spin MPV to India. In fact the company's plant in Halol, Gujarat, its first facility in India, was scheduled to be shut down by mid-2016. However, the deadline was extended to March 2017 and then finally to April 2017.
The company decided to continue production till March 2017 to ensure orderly transition for employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders. While the exact date of closure has not been decided yet, it looks like it won't cross the deadline this time. GM India has made attempts to close the Halol factory in the past, but met with criticism by the Gujarat government, which rejected its proposal last year.
As we had mentioned in a previous report, 350 regular workers have been transferred to the company's Talegaon factory in Maharashtra where the company will concentrate for its new line-up of products, namely the new-generation Chevrolet Beat, Beat Activ crossover, and Essentia sub-compact sedan.
