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"Given the importance of this small car program, and in an effort to move quickly to identify the plant, GM leadership has begun discussions regarding selection criteria with Federal and State government officials from Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin," said GM in a prepared statement. "We hope to identify and announce the future production site of the small car within the next several weeks."
What we will get to know as the new Chevrolet Spark in North America and Europe will be sold in South Korea and perhaps other Asian markets as the Daewoo Matiz. Spotted by the crew over at Noticias Automotivas somewhere in Korea without any sort of camouflage whatsoever, the 2010MY Matiz is a carbon-copy of its Spark sibling minus the Chevy grille, side skirts and large alloy wheels which seem to make a big difference in the city car's appearance.
Same goes for the interior which is identical to the Spark, although the Korean market version of the car does get its own unique trim options.
The 2010 Daewoo Matiz will most likely be offered in Korea with a similar engine lineup to the European Chevy Spark that is powered by a choice of 1.0 and 1.2-litre gasoline engines developing 66 and 78HP respectively. European sales of the new Chevy Spark will start towards the end of the year while North American customers will have to wait until the end of 2010 - beginning of 2011.
Via: Noticias Automotivas
General Motors' new city car, the Chevrolet Spark, will make its German market debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The Spark, which was shown in final production form at the Geneva Salon earlier this year, is due to go on sale in the majority of European markets at the beginning of 2010 where it will be offered with a choice of two newly-developed, all-aluminum 1.0 and 1.2-liter gasoline engines, generating 66HP and 78HP respectively.
Both engines are mated to a five-speed manual gearbox with the 1.2-liter unit expected to deliver zero to 100km/h (62mph) acceleration in 12.4 seconds while returning a combined fuel consumption of under 5.0lt/100 km (47+ mpg US).
The Spark is expected to arrive at U.S. showrooms during the first half of 2011.
If you happen live in Britain and have decided that a new Chevrolet Spark is the perfect Christmas gift to yourself or someone (*cough sugardaddy cough*) close to you, then you'll be happy to know that the GM brand is offering a free gift wrapping service on all orders received by December 21. The... festive bow tie initiative is being offered by Chevrolet UK across the country.
A team of expert gift wrappers will make the best use of ninety nine rolls of adhesive tape and forty six square meters of limited edition festive Chevrolet wrapping paper to hand-prepare the Spark supermini for Christmas.
“Everyone loves unwrapping presents," says Les Turton of Chevrolet UK. "It’s one of the highlights that all of the family can enjoy on Christmas Day. For those lucky people who will receive a Chevrolet Spark for Christmas we wanted to do something a bit special this year to make the present opening ritual a bit more fun. With so much time being spent wrapping and hiding gifts under the tree, we wanted to take the hard work away and provide a bespoke service that would make our customers smile.”
Those who want to take advantage of Chevrolet's offer, need to contact the company via email [Chevrolet(at)mischiefpr.com] or call 0207 100 9999 for more details by 12pm on Tuesday 21st December.
"Small cars represent one of the fastest-growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," said Troy Clarke, president of General Motors North America. "GM will be the only automaker, foreign or domestic, to build small cars in the U.S."
With the addition of the yet to be revealed small car, the Orion assembly plant will churn out 160,000 small- and compact-sized vehicle annually. Production of the new small car (the forthcoming Chevy Spark is a possible candidate though it could be a different model altogether) will begin in 2011.
"This is great news for our members at UAW Local 5960, Oakland County, and the State of Michigan, and shows the world the UAW can compete in the most competitive segment of the automotive industry," said Cal Rapson, UAW Vice President and Director, UAW-GM Department."
As for the two other assembly plants that were also under consideration to build the future small car, GM said Spring Hill will be placed in standby capacity status in Nov. 2009 but could be reinstated if additional capacity is required while the Janesville that was placed on standby capacity in May 2009, will remain in that status until further notice.
According to General Motors, the introduction of the small car will boost the company's percentage of U.S.-built cars and trucks sold in the States from about 67 percent today, to beyond 70 percent by 2013.
"Small cars represent one of the fastest growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," said Fritz Henderson, General Motors President and CEO. "We believe this car will be a winner with our current and future customers in the U.S."
"I would like to personally thank the UAW for agreeing to work with us to ensure our overall manufacturing competitiveness in the United States. It takes a special effort by everyone to bring a domestically produced small car to market in a cost-competitive and profitable way - but that is what we are going to do together," Henderson added.
source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com
Even though the production Spark comes with a five-door body style, it retains all of the concept's styling cues adding a few more interesting details such as the 'hidden' rear door handles. With an overall length of 3,640 mm and a 2,375 mm wheelbase, the Spark is slightly larger than Fiat's A-Segment Panda that measures 3,538 mm in length.
The design of Spark's interior continues the funky exterior theme with a swoopy dashboard and a motorcycle-inspired instrument cluster that is mounted on the on the steering column.
In Europe, power will come from a choice of 1.0 and 1.2-litre 16-valve four-cylinder gasoline engines with GM promising that they will deliver "excellent fuel efficiency and low emissions."
Depending on global markets, the Spark's safety equipment will include driver and passenger front air bags, front side airbags, roof rail head curtain airbags, antilock brakes and electronic stability control. Prices and exact equipment specifications are be announced closer to the car's on sale date.
