General Motors will launch the Chevrolet Beat Diesel in the second week of July, 2011. However, we got our hands on the car for a brief time and are impressed with the work GM engineers have done on the diesel Beat. For starters, the Chevrolet Beat Diesel uses a 936cc, 3-cylinder engine, which develops 57 bhp of power at 4000 RPM and 150 Nm of torque at 1750 RPM. The engine in the car we got our hands on, was labeled ECOTEC (the one which NDTV tested though read SMARTECH). The low end response is very good and the Chevrolet Beat Diesel does not feel sluggish at all. The clutch is light but the gearbox felt little hard to shift around. However since the unit was a pre-production one, we can expect the gearbox to be much better on the production car.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMu5Flxlw18 540 375]
The Chevrolet Beat Diesel sports excellent NVH levels. Don’t believe us? Checkout the video above in which we revv the car all the way to its redline at 5000 RPM. The electric power steering in the Beat Diesel is a breeze to use and makes parking in tight spots very easy. Everything else is the same on the diesel Beat except the audio system which now sports both a USB and an Aux out point. The company has also tweaked the suspension for comfort, something which weren’t able to make out during our short stint with the diesel Beat. GM was trying to achieve mileage figures close to 28 kmpl and the Beat TCDi has got an ARAI certification of 24 kmpl. This makes it the most fuel efficient CRDi car in the country.
