General Motors (GM) India on Friday launched the Sail U-VA, a premium hatchback. This is first vehicle from the GM’s partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) to be launched in India.
Priced between Rs 4.44 lakh and Rs 6.62 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), it is available in both petrol (Rs 4.44 lakh-Rs 5.58 lakh) and diesel (Rs 5.87 lakh-Rs 6.62 lakh) variants.
The new vehicle will compete with Maruti Suzuki’s Swift, Hyundai Motor India’s i20 and Ford India’s Figo.
Swift is priced between Rs 4.47 lakh and Rs 5.72 lakh, Hyundai i20 is available between Rs 4.74 lakh and Rs 6.66 lakh, while Figo is priced between Rs 3.85 lakh and Rs 5.01 lakh (all ex-showroom Delhi).
The Sail U-Va is built on a new global small passenger car platform created especially for growing emerging markets. Engineers at the GM Technical Centre in Bangalore spent around two years adapting the platform for India to meet local requirements, the company said.
“It brings a new sense of vitality to the largest, fastest-growing and most competitive segment in the domestic passenger car market,” Lowell Paddock, President and Managing Director, GM India, said. He said the company would also launch a sedan version of the Sail U-Va and a multi-purpose vehicle ‘Enjoy’ by December.
Globally, GM has been selling Sail U-Va in 14 countries such as Madagascar, Columbia, Argentina, Chile and China since 2010. It has sold six lakh units in these countries with maximum sales in China.
The new vehicle will be available with a 1.3-litre diesel and 1.2 litre-petrol engine with seven exterior colours to choose from.
It will come with a three-year or one lakh km standard warranty.
The company claims the petrol variant would give a fuel economy of 18.2 km per litre, while that of diesel would be 22.1 km per litre.
The earlier version that GM India had launched in 2006 has sold 32,248 units so far, the company said.