General Motors India’s Chevrolet Beat hatchback powered by a diesel engine has completed a year. Launched on July 25, 2011, the timing could not have come at a more appropriate moment. As a result of several increases in petrol prices, buyers had shifted in a significant way to buying a diesel car. So those scouting for an affordable diesel hatchback made a beeline for the diesel Beat. GMI’s portfolio was hampered by the lack of a small car, and with the Spark and the petrol Beat, launched in January 2010 and priced between Rs 3.34 lakh and Rs 3.94 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the carmaker was gearing up for a surge.

The Beat is the second car from GM’s 300 series platform following the launch of its utility vehicle Chevrolet Cruze in 2009. GMI took 27 months to develop the Beat which rolls out of the Talegaon plant in Maharashtra.

However, GM had also kicked off a major initiative to make a branded engine for the Indian market and had begun work on the Smartech, a 1.2-litre diesel engine designed by the company’s Technical Centre in Bangalore along with GM’s powertrain department in Europe. A few months before the launch of a diesel-engined Beat, GMI showcased the engine in the presence of Tim Lee, its head of international operations.

The engine was designed for Indian conditions, GMI’s then head, Karl Slym said. The Beat’s diesel heart features an aluminium cylinder head, deep skirt cylinder block and lightweight pistons which have reduced overall weight and boost fuel efficiency. The engine clearly had all the attributes of a winner.

With the 1.2 diesel heart, GMI has claimed that the car returns 24kpl in the ARAI Indian Driving Cycle test. The Beat diesel engine is probably the smallest common-rail diesel engine powerplant in a car in the world at present.

Until the launch of the Beat diesel, GMI had sold 51,977 units over a year and a half of the petrol variant. With the launch of the diesel, GMI’s sales of the funky compact took a great leap forward. The Beat has now sold 62,728 units in a year and at 4,354 units in July 2012, accounted for 60 percent of GMI’s monthly tally of 7,285 units.

In fact, Beat sales have crossed the 5,000-mark on four occasions in the year and accounting for the mainstay of GMI’s India portfolio which has not seen very good sales numbers except for the Chevy Cruze that has averaged between 600-700 units a month of sales. Last month, the company launched a new variant of the Cruze which takes on the Toyota Corolla Altis which continues to be the top selling car in its segment.

In January 2012, the diesel Beat became officially the most efficient engine after it was re-tested at the International Centre for Automotive Testing (ICAT) and officially certified with a fuel consumption figure of 25.4kpl. This is a five percent improvement over the Beat diesel’s original 24kpl.

Crucially, the improved figures take the Beat diesel past the 25kpl figures achieved by Tata Indica eV2 and Indigo eCS, which until now were fuel-efficiency champs. According to GM, the improvements came after minor tweaks to the engine calibration and reduction of frictional losses in other parts of the drivetrain.

With its aggressive pricing, the Beat was plonked in the heart of the B2 segment competing with the likes of Tata Indica, its main rival. So far it has no close rival but were Honda to equip its Brio with a diesel in the future, then the Beat would have a strong competitor.

Meanwhile, last year, General Motors unveiled an updated Beat at Chevrolet’s centennial anniversary celebrations at Detroit. This version had new front and rear fascia with re-profiled front and rear bumpers, reshaped honeycomb grille that housed a slightly bigger Chevy bow-tie emblem, new fog lamps and modified headlamps and brake lamps. It also has new rearview mirrors and an alloy wheel design, and GM claimed that the interiors had been mildly updated too. It remains to be seen if this version will make it to India’s shores. Incidentally, last year, GMI showcased the Beat battery electric vehicle (BEV) as part of World Environment Day. The demonstration vehicle was used to showcase the effectiveness of battery electric vehicle technology in India. The current financial year is crucial for GM India which is slated to launch a trio of products designed by its Chinese arm SAIC later this year in India. It will hope that all of them can replicate the success of the Beat.