GM to launch Chevy Sail on Friday

The car will compete against Toyota Etios, Maruti Swift DZire, Hyundai Verna, Volkswagen Vento

General Motors India, the subsidiary company of US's largest car making company General Motors Company, is preparing to launch its first model for the year under the Chevrolet brand

The company, which is the sixth largest in terms of volumes in the domestic market, will launch the Chevrolet Sail sedan this Friday. The car will compete against the Toyota Etios, Maruti Swift DZire, Hyundai Verna, Volkswagen Vento and the to-be-launched Honda Amaze.

Though pricing details will be made public at the launch, market watchers are predicting it to be in the range of around Rs 6.5-7.5 lakh (ex-showroom).

The Chevrolet Sail sedan is based on the same platform used on the hatchback Sail U-VA. The compact car was launched by the company in November. It was positioned in the premium category of hatchbacks priced at Rs 4.44 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The Sail sedan will come in petrol and diesel options using the same engines seen on the hatchback. The sedan will come with a 1.3 litre turbo-charged diesel engine and a 1.2 litre petrol engine.

The Sail U-VA was designed and developed by GM's Chinese joint venture company SAIC at the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai . However, the company made changes to the car to suit the Indian consumer needs before launching is locally here.

The Chevrolet Sail sedan will come with safety features such as speed sensitive auto door locks, anti-lock brake system (ABS) and electronic brake force distribution (EBD) along with passive safety features such as airbags, seat belts with pre-tensioner, crumple zones, collapsible steering system and side impact beams in the doors.