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Soon after Ford, Maruti and Renault made their plans official, General Motors is the latest to believe that compact SUVs are the way forward in India. Financial Chronicle newspaper is carrying a story with the newly appointed president of the Indian operations on record about their interest to build one. Is GM going to build a Sonic-based SUV similar to the Encore or body an SUV on the Sail? Lowell  [ Read More ]

Pune reader Anish Bengiri spotted a taped up Chevrolet Sail hatchback near his residence. The Sail hatch was displayed at the Auto Expo in Delhi a few weeks back and by the festive season (October-November) it will be launched in the market.

See high res interiors shots of the Sail

The Sail twins will replace the age old Aveos and the very important difference is the incoming models use Fiat’s 1.3-liter Multi-jet diesel engine manufactured at GM’s Talegaon plant.

Indian Autos Blog reader Satyajeet Bhaskare sent in high resolution pictures of a lazily camouflaged Chevrolet Sail sedan exposing its interiors for the first time. The Sail sedan is a product of the collaborative efforts of General Motors and its Chinese partner SAIC. The latter owns a fat stake in GM India cited as a key reason for the Sails to precede the Sonic siblings into India. The Sail was developed in China and is one mild facelift old already in its native place!

click through to read on

Speaking to IndianAutosBlog.com at the Delhi Auto Expo, an animated Vikas Jain, Director of sales at GM India, gave insights into the future of existing and future GM nameplates. Let’s dive straight into what Mr Jain had to say to IAB’s queries.

Is there plans to transplant the 2.2-liter engine from the Captiva facelift into the Cruze?

No, it (2.2-liter VCDI) is only on Captiva. It is not coming on the Cruze.

When do you plan to bring the Cruze facelift to India?

Last year in February we came out with black interiors for Cruze. Change is a continuous process. Its (Cruze facelift) in the pipeline but when and how it is still to be decided. It is not in the immediate future.

Do you plan to introduce a petrol engine on the Cruze?

No, we’re not going there.

Will the Tavera brand form an umbrella and cover the MPV concept shown here at the show?

The name of the MPV is still to be decided. There are lots of ideas. The point is branding, concept and marketing strategy get frozen three months before launch and there is still time to reach there.

click through to read on

General Motors India’s MPV is likely to come out between April-June followed by the Sail hatch in July-September sources tell Indian Autos Blog. Both vehicles have been jointly developed by GM, SAIC and Wuling and are displayed at the Delhi Auto Expo.

A revised 1.3-liter Fiat diesel engine manufactured at the company’s flexible production line in Talegaon, Maharashtra hides under the bonnet. The Aveo siblings are gradually going to be phased out and the Sail twins fill up the vacancies. Even if GM takes its time with these launches, they should grace showrooms not later than the festive season.

General Motors will sell both vehicles through existing GM dealers.

General Motors has just unveiled two products, Sail hatchback and MPV, brought in from the joint venture partner SAIC’s portfolio. These vehicles will be launched in the market this year. General Motors is not delving into the details and the questions around branding and tech specs will be answered closer to launch.

Sail hatch built for emerging markets – Past 1.5 years in development to meet the demands of the Indian conditions – powered by Smartech diesel and petrol engines – Sail competes in mini segment, one of the world’s most complicated small car segments.

The “All new Chevrolet MPV” (branding not revealed) was designed for consumers wanting space and style – flexible seating – max 7 occupants.

These two products are just the start of the slew of launches in the next two years.

GM India was dormant in 2011. The company had no new launches to show. Sure, it presented the Beat Diesel/Electric/CNG and the Smartech engine but these are categorized as variants or upgrades. When it came to new models, Chevrolet was pretty much in ‘consolidation phase’.

However, Chevrolet is making super plans for 2012. Apart from the Beat and Spark, they have no mass market products in their portfolio. Their people mover Tavera was banished from the metro cities due to lack of BSIV compliance. So a facelifted Tavera is in the making which will use engines from ICML. Another people mover – Hong Guang MPV is expected to lock horns with the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, while the smaller diesel-engined HongTu is the Maruti Eeco’s nightmare.

However the MOST important segment in the Indian automotive scene is the B and C segments. Chevrolet’s existing contenders – the Aveo and Aveo U-VA went to high school with Stonehenge. Their replacement is coming in the form of the Sail twins.

The hatchback version of the Sail was spotted by a Team-BHP member with the handle siddhu_engg24 testing near Nashik. The Sail hatchback is powered by a 1.2L petrol engine and a 1.3L Smartech diesel to directly compete against Indica Vista, Maruti Swift and Volkswagen Polo.

The sedan version of the Sail was spotted first by IAB in a parking lot. It will go head to head with the Fiesta Classic, Maruti Dzire, Tata Manza et al.

However, Chevrolet has not opted to bring the Sonic twins to India as planned earlier. GM’s original plan was to land the Sonic sedan in early-to-mid 2011.

Do you think that the Sail twins will have a fighting chance against competition?