'Spark' to burn rubber on Indian roads in April

Chennai, Jan 8 (UNI) Car major General Motors (GM) India will roll out its eagerly-awaited mini car 'Chevrolet Spark' in April this year, company Director and Vice-President (Corporate Affairs) P Balendran announced today.

Speaking at the launch of Chevrolet Aveo U-VA for the Tamil Nadu market, he said the mini car would be in the same segment as Hyundai's Santro.

The car would be rolled out from GM's plant at Halol near Baroda, the capacity of which would be increased to 85,000 units from the present 60,000 units by April next year.

He said GM's new plant at Talegaon near Pune would become operational by the last quarter of 2008 and would have an annual production capacity of 1,40,000 vehicles.

''Once this plant becomes operational, overall production capacity will go up to 2,25,000 units by end of 2008. Our intention is to get 10 per cent market share and sell 2,00,000 units by 2010,'' Mr Balendran said.

The new plant would cater to future production of new mini cars.

Of the 85,000 units, 20,000 units would be in Aveo platform, 25,000 would be of Chevrolet Tavera, 10,000 of Opra and the balance Chevy Spark.

He said this year, GM would also increase its showrooms from 95 to 114, workshops from 98 to 121 and expand its base by covering 96 towns from the present 79.

Competing with Hyundai Getz and Maruti Swift, the Aveo U-VA received ''good response'' among the potential car buyers after it was launched in New Delhi and Mumbai. ''Already there is a wait list of one week,'' Mr Sumit Sawhney, Business Head West and South, told UNI later.

Available in three variants, the Aveo U-VA 1.2, 1.2LS and 1.2 LT were priced at ex-showroom price of Rs 3,99,562, Rs 4,39,552 and Rs 4,79,482 respectively.

Mr Sawhney added that the Aveo U-VA is a combination of modern Italian design with a generous list of features and roomy interiors and shared a common platform with Chevrolet Aveo, introduced last year.

UNI