Proving to be a hot ticket

India's three big automotive brands Hyundai Motor, Tata Motors and Mahindra Mahindraare alllooking to ramp up production and arein theracetoacquire GM's Talegaon plant for this.

- Ketan Thakkar

With the Indian passenger vehicle market on the path to scale a new peak, three out of the country's top four car makers Hyundai Motor India, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are engaged in a race to acquire General Motors' Talegaon plant on the outskirts of Pune.

For all three carmakers, it is a race to a one million production capacity even as market volume leader Maruti Suzuki continues to add new factories every two years.

Sources say, there has been fervent activity at the Talegaon plant in the last fortnight with frequent visits by senior representatives of Hyundai Motor India and Tata Motors at the factory for negotiation.

Over the last couple of months-executives from Mahindra & Mahindra have also visited the plant to conduct a study for a potential acquisition of the plant to bring in incremental capacity.

Autocar Professional learns, Hyundai Motor India at present seems to be leading the race and already Korean delegates have engaged in a prebid negotiation with GM executives several times in the last fortnight.