General Motors (GM) may hold the trial run of its new manufacturing plant established at Talegaon, Pune, ahead of its earlier schedule of April 2008. The trial run will start next week when the President of General Motors (Asia-Pacific region) will visit India. According to an official in the company, the trial run has been advanced to a new date which will be released later.

GM has invested over $300 million at the Talegaon facility. This will be its second plant after the Halol plant in Gujarat. The Talegaon facility is expected to have a capacity to manufacture 1,40,000 car units a year, taking the total production capacity of GM to 2.25 lakh cars per annum. The Talegaon plant is expected to become fully operational by the year end of 2008.

The company will also set up a powertrain (car engine) production facility in the country to support the large car production facilities. GM has allocated $200 million for the proposed powertrain facility, which will commence after finalizing the location.

GM firmly wants to establish itself in the Indian car market and has set a target to achieve 10 percent of the Indian auto market by the end of year 2010. The company currently has a 3 percent market share. It has witnessed a 74 % better growth rate in 2007 compared to 2006. The company, under brand Chevrolet, currently markets 6 models - Spark, Aveo U-VA, Aveo, Optra Magnum, Optra SR-V, and Tavera.