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Adding sparkle to Spark

Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

New version Karl Slym, President and MD, General Motors India Private Limited at the launch

“General Motors India’s operations are absolutely not affected by what has happened to its parent company in the U.S. and I can assure you that our business in India is as usual and we are proud the way things are going on here for us,” says the president and general manager of the company, Karl Slym. GM India gives an instance of this buoyancy by launching a bio-fuel version of its Spark car on World Environment Day.

This is also to claim a pie of the growing small car segment in India. With the rising traffic jams in the country, more and more people are increasingly switching to smaller cars which are easier to manoeuvre, and every car manufacturer is trying to get a good market share by launching new models fitted with added features. And so is GM India.

The company, which in the last 12 years of its operations in India, has invested nearly Rs.5,000 crore here and made their presence felt with cars like the Captiva, Tavera and the U-VA.

The new Spark, which has the options of both petrol and LPG, is quite fuel-efficient. Spark LPG is fitted with the next generation sequential injection-type kit which in terms of technology is the latest and far superior to the venture-type LPG kit used by other manufacturers, claims the company.

What looks interesting is that the gas kit is fixed in the cavity of the spare wheel without comprising on space unlike other cars where a big cylinder is kept in the boot thus eating into the back space. It has a capacity of 26 kg of LPG which gives a mileage of 350 kms to a full tank of gas. Besides, it has a 40 litre petrol tank in case you run short of gas.

The new sequential technology is so good, you cannot differentiate the power output and the pick-up of petrol and gas. The engine will never backfire while changing to LPG from petrol thereby ensuring a smooth ride, claims the company.

The only problem will be the filling stations. Till date there are nearly 400 LPG stations throughout the country. Keeping safety in mind, the company has done several crash tests in India and Europe. The extra price one has to shell out for the LPG kit is Rs.21,000.

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