GM has very recently realized alongwith few other Colossal Automakers that small cars could give them the much sought after profit, as customers globally are looking for something affordable yet luxurious. Hey! That isn’t the only apprehension for GM , they know want to focus on producing compact cars priced below the $10, 000 which could become popular in developing markets like China , India and Eastern Europe .
Renault has already launched a compact car model in the Western Europe, dubbed Logan (pictured), which is priced at $7,760 at current exchange rates. Ask me how they tag such a reasonable price, well it is pretty simple, they have assigned this Project to Dacia, A Romanian Automaker. The Success rate has been stunning for Renault as they have sold 3, 30,000 units since 2004.
GM is surely impressed by this Renault success as it wants to emulate, not only the Low-price compact edition trend , even the strategy employed by Renault , as it is looking for partners who could provide engineering , production and distribution at very low costs . The do have the Daewoo option but then they are looking for more.
In this regard Nick Reilly, GM’s president of Asia-Pacific cited:
There are lots of different ways you can go about this. There are lots of ways to go to market.
For those of you who asses this as GM’s Urgency to somehow make money , let me tell you GM isn’t the only one doing it , there are others following this trend . VW is in the concluding state of bringing out a similar car, dubbed Polo which would sell for 6500 Euros and they have succeed in tagging it at such a low price by collaborating with its Czech Ally , Skoda for Technology and components usage . It will be there by 2009 .Toyota as you all know doesn’t want to lag behind in any possible manner be it in any market so they would have their Stock Ready by 2010.
Cars priced below $10,000 were considered a shame in big markets like the US but this is how time changes as America’s Biggest Automaker itself wants to produce something with such a low price tagging , although for the non-domestic markets. But I tell you what, if GM keeps loosing people like Kerkorian, it may well have to produce such cars for its own market!
Image Courtesy : Eastrolog
Credit : AutoWeek
