GM may launch Aveo hatchback

Riding on the success of the Optra and Tavera, General Motors (GM) is planning to play the Chevrolet card yet again. The plan is to launch the Aveo later this year.

Aveo, alias Daewoo Kalos, is available in both the hatchback as well as the three-box version. Industry sources indicate that in India, GM will launch the hatchback first to compete with a slew of similarly proportioned cars such as the Hyundai Getz and the yet-to-be-launched Suzuki Swift.

The car will be priced in the Rs 4.5-6 lakh range offering stiff competition to the other 'mature' hatchbacks on the roads.

Aveo, which will be manufactured at GM's Halol plant, will slowly but surely push the other GM hatchbacks, Corsa Swing and Sail, out of production.

The Corsa range of car will be phased out gradually, probably over the next 12 months. GM will utilise the capacity made available by the shrinking Corsa production for the Aveo as well as add fresh capacity. The company will finish ramping up production at its Halol plant to 50,000 units in the current quarter.

A GM spokesperson said, "We are working on various product programmes but due to competitive reasons we would not like to comment on specific products."

The company is known to be toying with the option of setting up a second plant in Gujarat or leasing some other auto major's manufacturing facility in preparation for the launch of its small car Chevrolet Spark. GM had evinced an interest in acquiring the beleaguered Daewoo India's car assembly assets in Surajpur.

It has completed the due diligence for the same. The matter is still pending regulatory clearance as the debt recovery tribunal (DRT) is engaged in negotiations with Daewoo's creditors on unpaid customs duties.

Spark, which will be a facelifted version of the Daewoo Matiz, is expected to hit the road either in late 2005 or early 2006. GM India is yet to gain critical mass in the one million-car-a-year Indian market. This is mainly because the company does not have a small car offering yet.