First batch of Chevrolet Beat hatchbacks head out of India

General Motors India has begun exporting the Beat hatchback to Chile. The Beat hatchback that is headed to Chile has been put together at the automaker’s Talegaon factory, off Pune. Notably, the 140 units strong batch of left hand drive, Beat Petrol hatchbacks headed to Chile, is the first crop of vehicles that the automaker has exported from India, and that makes this occasion a milestone in itself, as far as General Motors’ Indian operations are concerned.

In fact, the export oriented Chevrolet Beat assembly line at General Motors’ Talegaon facility was recently inaugurated by a personality no less than the automaker’s global CEO, Ms. Mary Barra, and this move clearly underlines the automaker’s export ambitions. General Motors India’s shift in focus to exports comes at a time when the automaker is facing significant headwinds in terms of sales performance in India.

Exporting more cars out of the country would therefore allow the automaker to keep its factories busy and revenues at a steady clip. As a country, India offers a high quality workforce and low cost manufacturing, factors that make exporting automobiles quite lucrative for both homegrown and foreign automakers. The likes of Hyundai, Nissan, Maruti Suzuki and Ford have been exporting large volumes of cars from India, leveraging on the country’s low cost-high quality manufacturing expertise.

General Motors has an installed capacity of 170,000 cars and 160,000 engines at its Talegaon factory. The Beat hatchback that General Motors sells in India is available in petrol, LPG and diesel variants. The petrol and LPG powered Beat use a 1.2 liter-4 cylinder motor that makes 80 Bhp-112 Nm in petrol guise. The turbo diesel powered Beat uses a 936cc, triple cylinder motor that makes 57 Bhp and 150 Nm. All variants of the Beat sold in India get 5 speed manual transmissions.