US automobile giant General Motors recently confirmed its aspiration to turn India into a new global auto manufacturing and export hub with a $1bn (£642m, €904m) investment. The company also claimed that they will launch 10 new domestically manufactured vehicles in India over the next five years.
Among the vehicles to be launched, there is a possibility of a Honda City rivalling mid-size sedan by 2018, reports Motoroctane. The segment where Chevrolet is eyeing has been a domain of Honda City for a very long time and the competition has been intensified with the launch of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. The proposed sedan will be a global sedan and sold in most of the GM markets just like the Beat and the Cruze.
The report further claims the manufacturer has already commenced testing for the sedan and it is likely to make a global unveil by the end of 2016. The C segment sedan will be positioned below the Cruze sedan of Chevrolet and will be available with newly developed turbo petrol and diesel engines.
Chevrolet India's last two launches, the Sail sedan and Sail U-VA in 2013 weren't successful in terms of volume sales. For unknown reasons there were no new car launches from then that resulted a drop in the sales.
With the new investment plan in place, Chevrolet is planning to launch a new line of vehicles for the emerging markets. The first car confirmed to launch in India is the Trailblazer SUV, which is scheduled in October. The product launches for 2016 will start with the Spin MPV. A new-generation Spark and Spark-based compact sedan is also on the cards. In 2017-18 time frame, Chevrolet will manufacture and launch a new-generation Cruze in India with maximum utilisation of local parts to keep price competitively.
