General Motors India starts production of petrol-engined Chevrolet Enjoy at Halol plant

February 20, 2013: General Motors India has begun regular production of the petrol-engined Chevrolet Enjoy MPV at its Halol manufacturing facility. The car is slated for launch in the first quarter of this year.

The rollout of the first Enjoy, in super red colour, was celebrated in the presence of GM India president and managing directors Lowell Paddock and Dr Zuoping Yao, GM International Operations manufacturing manager Phillip Disch, and the GM India leadership team earlier this month.

Autocar India, Autocar Professional’s sister magazine, says the petrol engine will be a 94.6bhp 1.4-litre unit and the diesel will be an evolution of the 1.3-litre Fiat-sourced Multijet engine. This version is likely to use a fixed-geometry turbocharger (FGT) and will be rear-wheel driven.

The Enjoy will be more spacious than the Maruti Ertiga; it will offer a lot more storage space too, since the second- and third-row seats of the seven-seater can be folded flat or removed altogether. GM India is targeting a price similar to the Ertiga’s, so there should be pretty tough competition in the MPV space once it is launched. The Ertiga sells about 5,000 units a month and is a major success in its category.

The Enjoy, which marks an important role in GM India’s product roadmap, is actually a Chevrolet-badged Wuling CN-100, part of GM-SAIC’s Chinese portfolio. Other products from the GM-SAIC stable are the Sail hatchback and the recently launched Sail saloon. The Sail U-VA hatchback sold 4,200 units last year since its launch in the last quarter of 2012. Paddock says sales have not been exactly up to the company’s expectations since the launch as October and November were very tough months for the market and December was a heavy discounting month. But now he is optimistic that the Beat, Enjoy and both the Sail U-VA hatch and notchback will drive the volumes for GM India.

Meanwhile, the company is going about expanding its dealer and service network in the country to support new car sales from the current 285 sales points, 278 service outlets and 75 used car outlets in 55 cities.