General Motors (GM) India, the Indian arm of the US automobile maker, has announced that the company has set a target of selling 90,000 automobiles in 2008.

Karl Slym, President and Managing Director of GM India said, "We have sold 60,000 units in 2007. We plan to increase the production by 30,000 this calendar year, capturing 4 to 4.5 % automobile market shares this year from the existing 3.2%."

“Our target in 2008 would be to capture 12 % market share in passenger car as against 9% we currently have," he added.

Slym further said that the SUV segment was witnessing a steep growth in the country, so to increase presence in the Indian market, GM India would continuously look at expanding the portfolio.

GM India presently produces Chevrolet Optra, Chevrolet Tavera, Chevrolet SRV, Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Aveo and Aveo U-VA at its plant in Halol near Baroda in Gujarat. The Halol facility of the company was expanded to 85,000 from 60,000 units in April 2007.

Company said in a statement that it would start manufacturing at its second plant in Maharastra in August.

The proposed plant, entailing an investment of Rs 1,300 crore, would come up at Talegaon near Pune with a capacity of 1.4 lakh units per annum.

Yesterday, the company launched sports utility vehicle (SUV) Captiva priced at Rs 17.74 lakh in Kolkata.