The world’s largest car maker, General Motors(GM), is joining the bandwagon of Auto manufacturers interested in bringing more small cars to India as it plans to launch a second small car in India after the Chevrolet Spark. This Mini Car will not compete directly with Tata Motors’ low-cost Nano but will be cheaper than Spark, GM group vice-president, told a news conference on Monday.

The launch of the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, by Tata Motors Ltd has fuelled interest in the industry with many of these companies, including India’s No. 2 motorcycle manufacturer, Bajaj Auto Ltd, now aspiring to make cars that will be cheaper than the existing products.

Nick Reilly, GM group vice-president and the company head in the Asia-Pacific region, said, ”We believe there is space for us to have another entry in the mini car segment in India”. He also admitted the radical change that the Nano has had on automobile manufacturers’ strategic decisions. ”The Nano has definitely opened discussions in the automobile industry all over the world about the sales potential of such low-cost cars. Many companies, including ours, is looking what we can do with our own cars to lower cost from some of the existing categories that we currently have”, he said.“We intend to introduce a second mini into the market,” he said. “When we say new cars (for India), that’s referring to a second mini and potentially another vehicle in a completely different segment.”

NEW CHEVROLET 3 DOOR AVEO SUPERMINI @ 2008 GENEVA AUTO SHOW

GM’s earlier entrant in this segment, the Spark, which had been released by GM CEO Rick Wagoner in April last year, had contributed substantially to the company’s sales volumes.