Global automobile heavyweight General Motors today launched the premium hatchback Chevrolet AVEO U-VA in a bid to expand its product portfolio and get a foothold in the compact car segment. This is GM’s second attempt at the segment after the failure of Opel Corsa SAIL and the third car launch in the year under the Chevrolet brand.

The U-VA which is built in the same platform as the mid sized sedan Chevrolet AVEO is powered by a 1.2 litre petrol engine and is competitively priced between Rs 3.99-4.79 lakh ex- showroom in Delhi. U-VA will be followed by the much awaited small car Spark (erstwhile Daewoo Matiz) next year, as the company hopes to corner 10 per cent market share and notch up sales of over 200,000 nits by 2010.

“We have been a marginal player in the booming Indian automobile market so far with sales of just over 35,000 units last year. We hope the launch of U-VA and Spark next year will change all that and are expanding our capacities in line with the potential demand for these models,” said GM India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba. The company is expanding its capacity at the Halol plant in Gujrat to 85,000 units by 2008 and is also building a new plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra with a capacity of 140,000 units.

“Our sales target for this year is 37,000 units this year which will go up to around 72-75,000 units next year. The Halol expansion will be complete by 2008 and once the Talegaon plant becomes operational in the last quarter of 2008 our capacity will shoot beyond 200,000 units per year,” Chaba added.

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