Chevrolet Sail Hatchback seen testing in Pune

Chevrolet, the flag-bearer of General Motors in India, continues to have mixed fortunes in our market. At one end, the Beat Diesel and Cruze have been major success stories in their respective segments while other models like Spark, Optra and Tavera are having a mediocre run. At the other end though, the Aveo sedan and the U-VA hatchback have been such sales laggards that the least we write about them, the better. Seriously, the Aveo twins have been struggling to such an extent that it makes us wonder what made GM retain them in its portfolio this long. But, there is some respite finally. The car you see in this post, the Sail hatchback that was caught testing in Pune by our reader Guru, will replace the Aveo U-VA in our market. That’s not all. There is a sedan version of the Sail too that will subsequently replace the Aveo sedan.

If you do not know already, GM’s Indian subsidiary is partly owned by its Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and the Sail would be the first product of this Indo-Chinese joint-venture. The Sail is expected to be launched with petrol and diesel engine variants in hatchback and sedan body styles, thus giving General Motors a fresh shot at cracking the premium hatchback and entry mid-size segments. The design of the Sail is not as striking as a Cruze or a Beat and this is where we totally miss the Sonic twins that look butch, mean and aggressive. There has been numerous spy-shots of the Sail twins testing at diverse locations across India over the past year and half and the online media is literally littered with images of the car. It is high time GM launches this model officially which, at the moment, is slated to happen within the next couple of months.

Set them sailing, General!