India is fast gaining importance in the global operations of US-based General Motors and the company?s design studio in India is actively participating in the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) project, being developed by GM in collaboration with Segway.

?The company?s design team in Bangalore is involved in the sketching and designing of the vehicle that was showcased for the first time at the New York auto show,? Edward T Welburn, vice-president (global design), GM said on the sidelines of the launch of Beat. GM and Segway are developing an electrically powered, two-seat prototype vehicle that has only two wheels. It runs on lithium-ion batteries and could allow people to travel around cities at a lower total cost. The company is also betting big on the Indian market and says its sales will jump by over 40% in 2010 on the back of Beat, which is priced between Rs 3.34 lakh and Rs 4.34, and will become its highest-selling model as it goes on sale from Monday.

?Beat will help us increase our sales from 70,000 units a year to 1,00,000 units a year as we intend to roll out an average of 4,500 units a month from the company?s Talegaon plant,? Karl Slym, president and managing director, said, adding that the company will also look at introducing the diesel variant of the car when it rolls our diesel engines from its upcoming powertrain plant in Talengaon towards the end of 2010.

According to Ankush Arora, vice president (sales and marketing), GM India, the company will increase the prices of GM cars by 0.5% to 1.25% with effect from Tuesday. ?This will translate into an increase of Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,000 across various models,? he said. Being touted as the company?s global mini car, Beat is powered by 1.2 litre petrol engine and will help GM use its Indian capacity to cater to the global markets. ?We will start exporting Beat from India by December this year and 20% of our total Beat production in India will go to markets in Europe and Asia Pacific,? Slym said, adding that the local content of Beat will be increased from 60% now to nearly 90% within a year.