Indian Autos blog

Many of GM’s future engines and gearboxes are developed at the Bangalore powertrain center

Today in Bangalore, GM India launched the automatic transmission of the Cruze diesel sedan at 13.45 lakh rupees (ex-showroom Delhi). Before the commencement of the event, GM sent us on a tour of their powertrain facility where it developed engines and gearboxes for some of the world’s popular Chevrolets like Malibu, Escalade hybrid, Volt and Captiva.

The technology centre is currently working on engines of 0.8-6.6 liter engine size range, both in petrol and diesel forms. The engineers are also at work on hybrids (mild, full and plug-in) and fuel cells. GM’s ultimate destination, it claims, is fuel cell technology which offers the perfect deal, both in performance and emissions.

In their presentation, one of the slides suggested GM was working on a 1.3-liter diesel engine. This locally manufactured engine could be transplanted into the T300 (Aveo replacement overseas) which arrives in India in 2011.

Automatic transmissions have gained rapid acceptance in US and in China, it is in high demand. India could be the next to follow says GM which explains how automatic transmissions have the ability to deliver a consistent mileage figure over time compared to the manual transmission which needs more driver effort and delivers inconsistent mileage. The latter is cheaper, but the former is the future, it believes.

For obvious reasons, GM did not take us on a complete tour of the building and did not permit photography or entry at certain points. We spent just about the correct time to learn what they wanted us to, while not being able to extract anything extra from the employees explaining to us about the technologies and hardware. The powertrain facility employs about 700 engineers and has a million display monitors!

We could not get any idea on what currently GM is developing for future vehicles, except for the fact that next generation powertrains were being worked on in that building. The powerpoint presentation, in the beginning of the visit and the manner in which the engineers spoke to us pointed to EVs and hybrids. The facility looks capable of designing new and advanced powertrains, and that is what they were secretly doing on minimized windows while we twisted, turned, ducked and peeked into the work stations of the fully-aware CAD engineers, who giggled amongst themselves at our failed attempts!

images to follow in the next few hours

Wuling’s CV lineup –

Talks on SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) purchasing a plant from GM in India to produce low-cost Wuling vans is in the early stages according to a leading Chinese news outlet.

General Motors runs on a JV with SAIC and Wuling Automobile in China and produce the Chevrolet Spark and minivans. SAIC were also in talks with GM to purchase the Vauxhall Insignia platform to build vehicles specifically for the Chinese market.

No more details are available at this point, but we’ll keep a close track on this.

Head over to the official Wuling website to learn more

Last month, GM’s product “Czar” and vice-chairman of global product development Bob Lutz announced that GM is cancelling development of the next generation Zeta large RWD car platform, citing difficult economic and environmental concerns as the reasons.

General Motors is en route to launch LPG & CNG cars in India in the next few months. This announcement was made after the American company is trying to strengthen the SUV segment by launching the Automatic transmission variant of it’s best selling Captiva, priced at Rs. 20.3 Lakh.

Karl Slym General Motors India President (GMI) and Managing Director confirmed that their strategy for this year is to bring in more fuel efficient cars and introduce vehicles powered by (other) fuels like CNG and LPG, besides having different power-trains and different displacements. The company will be launching a LPG-driven car in the first half of this year.

We speculate it’s the 800 cc version of the Spark which has been in GM’s pipeline for a long while now. The Aveo, which underwent a minor cosmetic surgery last year, will also be blessed with the LPG heart along with a 1.4-liter diesel engine by the end of 2009. A thoughtful move given the slash in LPG prices by the Indian government. No info on the Cruze or the Beat launch dates yet, until then stay tuned to IAB for more information.

As it was already reported, World’s Number 1 car maker GM’s India division has increased prices of its cars by 1-2 percent to compensate for risings costs.

“The price rises were to cover input costs and the impact of the weakening of the rupee last year”, Said Mr.P Balendran, Vice-President of General Motors India.

Chevrolet’s European division has confirmed that the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze’s debut in the European market will remain as per schedule. Its expected to make its European debut in April 09. The company expects to sell about 20,000 to 25,000 units in first year after its launch.

IAB in an earlier post, talked about the delayed release of Chevy Cruze. Here are more reasons for a much longer delay. In addition to the standard four-door sedan model that Chevrolet debuted in Paris, GM is now considering hatchback and wagon versions of its Cruze in order to “accommodate the ‘individuality’ of markets around the globe and to fill the rest of the range. Because of its global presence,  [ Read More ]

With aggressive design cues from the Cadillac division, the Cruze seems to be a great leap forward from the aging Optra. Three engine configurations are offered. 112 HP 1.6L and 140 HP 1.8L petrol engines and a new 2.0L turbo diesel, developing 150 HP and 320 Nm of torque.