Work speeds up at Halol for Enjoy

Having launched the much awaited multi-purpose vehicle Chevrolet Enjoy last week at a competitive price, General Motors, is now working round the clock to produce eight Enjoys per hour at Halol near Vadodara.

US-based auto major GM launched the MPV in the metros on May 9, and has priced it competitively against its closest rival the Maruti Suzjuki Ertiga, at Rs 5.49 lakh (petrol variant) and Rs 6.69 lakh. Upbeat from the new launch, the company has started working in two shifts at its Gujarat plant producing eight Enjoy vehicles per hour, informed sources in the company.

While GM's Halol plant is working five days a week, it has extended the normal shift hours by from eight to nine hours. The company, thus can now make 144 Enjoys per day if there is demand for the vehicle in the market. Meanwhile, GM's Halol plant also makes the Chevrolet Tavera and the Cruze sedan. "At Halol we make around 1500 Taveras and less than a 1,000 Cruze sedans a month," informed a worker at the plant on grounds of anonymity.

The base variants of the Enjoy has be strategically priced at Rs 49,000 and Rs 70,000 cheaper than the Ertiga for petrol and diesel variants respectively. At present, Maruti sells around 6365 units of the Ertiga per month. Maruti had hit the jackpot with the Ertiga selling over 76,000 units last year.

GM is keen to present in the segment as utility vehicles grew by as much as 52 per cent last year.

The launch of the Enjoy has come in as a boost for the local component making industry around Halol, which was languishing under sluggish demand. The General Motors plant remained closed or observed no-production days for around two weeks during last December. "Thanks to new model launches, now there is steady demand from GM, and orders have picked up by around 30 per cent," said an official in a local manufacturing unit that also has units in Pune and NCR.

He added that as the company is also looking at increasing localisation in the car, orders are likely to pick up even further. GM plans to increase the localisation in the car from a current 60 per cent to around 75 per cent over the next few months.