General Motors made the announcement on saturday afternoon that they will be launching their new car the ‘Aveo U-VA’ in the Kerala in the coming week. The company officials claim that this will be a good start for Chevrolet and would be estimating about 200-300 cars to be sold every month.
This will also give them a good platform for another car which they are launching, the Chevy Spark. The Chevy Spark is the new generation Matiz and will be launched in the summer of 2007.
The Chevrolet Aveo U-VA is a car first made in Europe, and has been brought into the country after the car has done satisfactorily in markets like North America and Asia Pacific region.
Aveo, Chevrolet January 15th 2007
General Motors India today announced that it has made a 19% (YoY, Year on Year) plus sales growth in the last month of 2006. They have issued a figure of 2,583 units sold in December 06′, versus the 2,163 figure last year.
GM claim to have sold 1,517 Chev Taveras and almost half the number of Chevrolet Aveos despite being the new kid on the block. The Optra sales were not too impressive with only 307 units sold this last month.
In 2006, GM has come out with two new models this past year which is the hit Chevrolet Aveo over the Ford Fiesta and the Chevrolet SRV which has not sold too many units but have got good reviews.
The company is optimistic about the next year with competition coming in from the likes of Mahindra and Mahindra partnering with Renault, the European carmaker. GM feel that they have got an ace up their sleeve with the new Chevrolet Aveo UVA.
The Aveo U-VA is the new hatch back and could be good competition to the likes to Hyundai Getz and the Maruti Swift.
They also have a new manufacturing unit opening up in Talegaon plus they have increased the capacity of their Halol plant to 85k units. The Talegaon plant is due to start latest by 2008.
General Motors has launched its first Hatchback in India (ofcourse we are not considering the Opel Corsa at the moment) before the Christmas season. The Aveo U-VA is a premium hatchback with a 1.2 litre petrol engine that will cost you close to 4 lakh (base model).
The Aveo U-VA is in direct competition to the Getz and the Maruti Swift which has been a revelation from MUL. The other variants of the U-VA are priced at Rs. 4.39 lakh and 4.79 lakh. The car comes with a 4 cylinder engine, along with 76 bhp power.
The new Aveo U-VA, Mr Chaba said, “We have re-engineered the car to suit Indian conditions and it carries a local content of less than 50 per cent, which we plan to take up to about 55 per cent in the coming time.”
Overall the car will come with a weaker engine compared to the Swift or the Getz, but will be more spacious and definitely will give you more for less.
Aveo, General Motors December 24th 2006
