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General Motors launched the Chevrolet Cruze with a new engine today and revealed plans about their next launch – the Sail. The American automaker will call the hatchback version of the Sail as the Sail U-VA and will launch the vehicle in July 2012. The Chevrolet Sail U-VA will be offered with a 1.3-litre diesel engine the company has told us on the sidelines of the Cruze launch. Now GM was Fiat’s partner in the development of the Multijet engine and this 1.3-litre diesel engine will be none other than the Multijet indeed.
The Chevrolet Sail U-VA is a Chinese vehicle, developed by GM’s Chinese partner SAIC. The design does look outdated but if priced aggressively, the Sail U-VA could do decent numbers in the Indian market. The 1.3-litre diesel engine will produce 74 BHP of peak power and 190 Nm of peak torque. This Multijet engine will be mated to a 5-speed automatic gearbox and will return an ARAI certified mileage of 20 km/l. The petrol powered Sail U-VA will use a 1.2-litre engine which produces 82 BHP of power and 108 Nm of torque. This engine will be mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox and will return an ARAI certified mileage of 17 km/l.
The Chevrolet Aveo twins are being pulled off the market soon. The company has already stopped production of the Aveo siblings and will replace them with the Sail twins over the next 6-8 months. The reason for the Aveo being such a massive failure in the Indian market can be attributed to a lack of diesel option. With the Sail, GM hopes that it can capture a significant pie of the competitive B and C-segment market. What remains to be seen is whether Indian’s will accept the Chinese Sail twins easily. Had the company launched the Sonic twins, the Maruti Suzuki Swift and Swift DZire would be sweating by now.
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