GMIL president and managing director Richard C Swando confirmed the company's interest in the small car segment. "We are looking at small cars and slightly bigger cars also," he said. The company is planning to have two more variants of the recently launched 1389cc Corsa model - a station wagon and a hatchback model.

Since the takeover of Korean chaebol Daewoo Ltd yet to be decided in favour of the $161-billion General Motors Corp, the company is now looking at the small car segment, where it does not own a model. In the event GM takes over Daewoo, the US car major will immediately gain a sizeable foothold in the small car segment both in Asia-Pacific and Europe.

GM had invested around Rs 320 crore in its wholly-owned subsidiary GMIL and later increased it to around Rs 600 crore. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has approved GM's plans to hike the investment level further to Rs 780 crore.

According to Swando, GMIL's station wagon model, which was displayed at different auto shows, has received the "most response." The hatchback model conceptualised on the Corsa will compete with Maruti Zen and Telco's Indica models, Swando said.

He was in Calcutta announcing the launch of the latest models, Astra 2000 and Corsa. The company is planning to sell between 5,000 and 6,000 Corsa models in the smaller mid-size segments which is supposed to be one of the most successful models selling more than a million cars annually.

The base Corsa model has an ex-factory price tag of Rs 5.35 lakh in Delhi while it will cost Rs 5.46 lakh at Calcutta. According to regional sales manager Sanjeev Garg, both the Corsa and Astra models have been competitively priced, lower than their competitors in their respective segments.

The 1598cc Astra 2000 is placed in the upper mid-size segment along with Honda City 1.5EXi, Suzuki Baleno and Mitsubishi Lancer GLXI. It has an ex-showroom price tag of Rs 7.09 lakh in Delhi and Rs 7.57 lakh in Calcutta.Swando hoped that both the models will be able to grab an average 12 to 14 per cent market share in their respective segments. In order to substantiate the auto market surveys done by the company, it is planning to import a limited number of its Vectra model, especially for embassy personnel. The Vectra model will have a price tag of around Rs 10 lakh.

According to vice-president for corporate affairs P Balendran, the localisation level of Corsa is 50 per cent while for Astra it is 69 per cent.