GM to make India its Asia Pacific development hub for powertrains

In stark contrast to its US operations, which seem to be serious trouble right now, General Motor’s Indian arm seems to be doing at least reasonably well. General Motors India, which has announced new investments of up to US$500 million in the country, is working towards setting up new car and powertrain manufacturing facilities, and hopes to be hiring 500 new employees in the second half of 2009.

General Motors has, in fact, decided to make India its powertrains development hub for the Asia Pacific region and given that this region covers countries like Australia, China and Korea, the decision seems pretty significant.

GMI, which already employs around 1,600 people at its engineering and R&D centre in Bangalore, will be adding more manpower and enhancing its technology-related capabilities in a big way over the next few months. And while development work would be the key focus for now, later, GM could also look at making India its manufacturing hub for powertrains, which it would primarily use in Asian and Eastern European markets.