GM to Nearly Triple India Automobile Production

[Marc]

Interesting - General Motors (aka Generous Motors) can sell cars everywhere but in the US it seems...

BANGALORE, India - General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it plans to nearly triple the number of cars it produces in India to meet growing demand in the South Asian country.

The announcement came just weeks after the company said it would slash 30,000 jobs and scale back production in the United States.

GM previously had announced plans to increase production in India from more than double the 25,000 cars a year it currently produces in the country. Lawrence Burns, vice president for research and development, said Tuesday that the number of vehicles made in India would eventually reach 80,000.

However, Burns provided few details of GM's plans for India, a country of 1 billion people with a fast growing economy that many Western manufacturers have long viewed as a potentially huge market.

Burns insisted jobs were not being moved from the United States, and said much of the new production would come from increasing the hours of workers already employed by the company, although he did say that some new jobs would be added. GM currently employs about 2,000 people in India.

Burns said the production at GM's plant in the western Indian city of Halol would be increased in phases, but did not offer a timetable.

GM said in November that declining sales and rising health care costs would force it to close 12 North American manufacturing facilities by 2008 and cut 30,000 jobs, which represent 17 percent of GM's North American hourly and salaried work force of 173,000.

The plan will cut the number of vehicles GM is able to build in North America by about 1 million a year by the end of 2008. GM will be able to build about 4.2 million vehicles a year in North America, down 30 percent from 2002.

GM also said Tuesday it would add about 50 researchers in India to its current research staff of 450. "Our target is to employ 500 people in India early next year and the hiring momentum here will continue," Taub told reporters in Bangalore, India's technology hub.

"The creation of research jobs here in India is consistent with the need for us to invest in the markets where we sell our products," Burns said.

[Jim Howe]

Originally Posted by Marc

Interesting - General Motors (aka Generous Motors) can sell cars everywhere but in the US it seems...

It is kind of amazing to me that GM, Ford, etc. can cry poor mouth at the expense of its active and retired workers (not to mention the eventual bailout funded by all us taxpayers) and at the same time use US funds to build and tool up plants in foreign countries. Certainly any intelligent individual has already seen through this fascade!!! And we weep over Enron!!!

[bmccabe]

Originally Posted by Jim Howe

It is kind of amazing to me that GM, Ford, etc. can cry poor mouth at the expense of its active and retired workers (not to mention the eventual bailout funded by all us taxpayers) and at the same time use US funds to build and tool up plants in foreign countries. Certainly any intelligent individual has already seen through this fascade!!! And we weep over Enron!!!

All hail Jim The Enlightened!!!!

[Jennifer Kirley]

Originally Posted by Jim Howe

It is kind of amazing to me that GM, Ford, etc. can cry poor mouth at the expense of its active and retired workers (not to mention the eventual bailout funded by all us taxpayers) and at the same time use US funds to build and tool up plants in foreign countries. Certainly any intelligent individual has already seen through this fascade!!! And we weep over Enron!!!

It is known as the economic term elasticity and, when viewed in such a clinical and detached manner, the only crying is done by those whose lives are disrupted by the forces. I would know...

GM's management must (I suppose) have wondered how many cars they could keep selling, given their waning share and yet their response was to artificially move the sales through such gimmicks, however appreciated, as "Employee discounts for everyone!" A car maker needs to forecast its sales trends against little facts such as these:

1. Cars are becoming so expensive that many can't afford to just buy another one in a couple or few years, given the wage stagnation and overall inflation which I have noted rather higher than the index the government broadcasts.

2. Cars are living longer than a few years, due in part to improved rust inhibitors they are manufactured with.

3. Increasingly frequently, buyers are motivated to shop for cars that last longest with fewest troubles and operate more cheaply than the vanity and utility vehicles GM specializes in.

Mismanagement and executive myopia is unfortunately an epidemic, which is represented by GM and Enron but certainly not confined to them. The waste overall is face-numbing to consider. Productivity improvement is still largely driven by automation and handing more work to those left over from layoffs, rather than Kaizen of processes. This has gone on so long that it feels normal, and this society is not yet pained enough to demand and force changes. They just buy Toyotas, Subarus and so on.

[Jim Howe]

It is my understanding that these cars will be built and sold in India. Does anyone know at what price the cars sell for or are we subsidizing that as well???