That's right, the Chevrolet Spark is selling like hot naan in India. The Hindu reports GM manage to put 3,691 Sparks into peoples' driveways last month, up from just 1,286 the year before. For those of you not familiar with the decade-old Spark, it's also known as the Chevrolet Exclusive, Chevrolet Matiz, Chevrolet Joy, Daewoo Matiz, Pontiac Matiz, Pontiac G2, FSO Matiz, Chevrolet Taxi 7:24 Chronos and of course the hot sounding UZ Matiz (not to mention the Chery QQ). All variations of the Spark come with your choice of 0.8 and 1.0-liter engines. In contrast to the General's fortunes, India's overall auto market has experienced a bit of contraction, moving only 7,42,027 units through February vs. 8,27,594 vehicles the previous year. A big however, however, is in order. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM 'natch) counts motorcycle sales amongst the totals. If you look at just motorized four-wheeled transportation devices, they're up 2.31 percent.
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Wow, almost 4,000 cars in a country of a billion. Impressive.
Damn. How come we can’t get the Pontiac G2 in the US? It would be a great addition to Pontiac’s lineup. Not quite as sporty as a G5 though.
.8L?
Geez, is that lifted off of a go kart or something?
Edward Niedermeyer:
Wow, almost 4,000 cars in a country of a billion. Impressive.
Yeah, those Chevys are just flying off the lots in India. *rolls eyes*
Talk about a misleading headline.
Johnson :
Talk about a misleading headline.
I prefer the term “ironic.”
What do they have rental cars in India already? I am sure that GM-Daewoo has great potential if they would try to build a world-class car. I can already tell they will let the current-gen cobalt rot on the vine as the general concentrates on what the people want, more Cadillacs and that new Comaro. They should concentrate on the cars people will buy the most like a new-gen Cobalt with 30+ MPG and great dependability. I am sure they are going to continue to brag about how amazing their sales are in India while the majority of the people are just now learning how to drive. Yesterday my neighbor was bragging about how much more technologically advanced his 2008 Cobalt was to my 2002 Civic and I just gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Did they make any money selling them? GM can’t seem to build a decent profitable small car in North America. Can they do it in India?
Of course GM is reporting doubling of sales in India. But as a auto industry analyst in India, let me correct the picture:
1. Sales picked up from Apr 07 because of launch of small cars Spark which coincided with Wagoner’s visit. Selling 3000 per month in a segment that has sales of 69,000-70,000 per month hardly smells of a successful product.
Look at the monthly sales trend before and after that, and the base effect will kick in from May 2008. After that, month on month sales growth would not be so hot at 10-15%.
2. As is the case with all GM cars in India, sales of Spark were measly. For example, Spark (and a smilar segment UVA) sold 27253 in Apr 07-Feb 08. But that is in a market of 704172 units (small and compact car segment). Total market share: 3.9%.
3. GM’s strategy in India is to price high initially to extract launch hype. Then: car does not sell (GM reputation precedes it). So within 3 months, there is a huge discount announced. Sales pick up for 2-3 months, and then the cycle repeats itself. As a result, a Rs. 7 lakh (US$17000) car bought now could be available for Rs. 5 lakh (US$12500) after 1 year. That cheeses off people who paid high, who are anyway unhappy with post sales service, and these people vow never to buy a GM again.
Continuation:
GM’s history in India has been tainted by (a) launch of obsolete and highly problematic Opel products in the mid-1990s (b) price discounts after every few months (c) poor service (d) pulling out products after a few years because of poor response thus hitting existing customers. Most of all, competition with Japs-Suzuki in small cars and Toyota/Honda in large.
GM can post any growth but in all its segments, it is close to last.
On a monthly basis prior to the Spark launch, GM had a market share of 3.1% in Mar 07. Prior to that, UVA was launched in 12/06 but it did not sell. Then Spark was launched in 4/07, and it sells around 2,500-3000 per month, which is hardly anything in a 70,000 per month segment. Nevertheless, because of that market share jumped to 5.5% in 12/07, but is now down to 4.4% in 2/08. Even the Spark has not met with much success, and GM reduced prices by Rs. 40-50000 across variants in 10/07. Now for a car that sold for Rs. 340,000, that is a 15% price cut. That is a lot of feeling cheated for a budget segment buyer (who is the market for Spark).
Even that price cut has not helped and Spark sales are between 2500-3500 in most months. It also sells an obsolete SUV Tavera (based on Isuzu) which sells in the cheap range of the segment. Its sedans-Aveo and Optra-are confirmed flops, with market share of 2.9% for Aveo and 13.3% for Optra.
The base effect for GM’s sales growth in India will kick off in May 08 as shown below:
Monthly sales Year on year growth
4/07 3293 -10.1%; 5/07: 5,432 56.2%; 6/07: 4,779
42.8%; 7/07: 4,570 86.5%; 8/07: 5,817 113.9%; 9/07: 5,751 64.0%; 10/07: 6,139 94.7%; 11/07: 5,356 109.7%; 12/07: 6,309 144.3%; 1/08: 5,517
46.1%; 2/08: 5,563 80.2%
GM is presently selling 5,500-6000 per month in India. If it sells 6000 in 5/08, that represents a year on year growth of 10-10.5%, down from near triple digits.
Wait for GM’s India’s press releases from May 08 onwards. They have no small cars planned.
of course it is a success. because so many good American designers and engineers have worked on this car. Building world class engines, polishing with their hands interiors and chatting in english, how they worship fit and finish and how proud they are being Americans, and how proud they are showing the world how to build real cars.
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