The Beat is manufactured at Chevrolet’s Talegaon plant
Chevrolet recently surpassed the one-million mark on a worldwide stage for its famous superminis, the Beat and the Spark. The company also sold its one-millionth Cruze earlier this year. GM India has sold over 178,053 Beat cars since it’s introduction in the country. The cars are produced in the company’s local manufacturing plant in Talegaon, Maharashtra.
In India, the Beat is sold in two variants; one is powered by a 1.2-litre 4-cylinder DOHC engine that chucks out 80.5 Ps @ 6200 rpm and 108 Nm @ 4400 rpm. The other is an oil-burner that displaces 936cc and has a 3-cylinder layout. Helped by a tiny turbocharger (first in-class), this motor produces 57.1 PS @ 4000 rpm and 142.5 Nm @ 1750 rpm. Both the cars have a 5-speed manual transmission. According to GM India, the Beat is their proposal for a frugal hatchback for our roads and is also their best-selling car in the country.
GM India also exports the Beat to international markets and the first batch of 140 left-hand drive cars were dispatched on September 25th from Mumbai to Chile. The Talegaon plant has an annual production capacity of 170,000 vehicles and 160,000 engines and the company plans more such export shipments each month.
Over 3-million Cruzes have been sold till date
The Chevrolet Beat is called the Spark in most of the international markets where it is sold and was launched in India in the late part of 2009. As of today, the Spark (Beat in India) is sold in over 70 different markets around the globe. Most of these cars are sold in South Korea. The United States of America and Mexico closely follow suit. In fact, in the USA, the Spark has witnessed a 10-percent increase in sales.
“Our small cars – Spark, Sonic and Cruze – attract more new car buyers to Chevrolet than any other vehicles in the lineup, with more than 60 percent of buyers never owning a Chevy before,” said Alan Batey, executive vice-president of Global Chevrolet.
Source – Autocar Professional