Mumbai:

The Chevrolet Optra is yet another offering from the Indian subsidiary of the world's largest automobile company and forms part of the company's plans to grow its sales in India to about 50,000 units in the next three years.

Says GMI president and managing director Aditya Vij: "The Optra will expand our existing portfolio and help us to further consolidate our position in the Indian automobile market. We are expecting to sell about 10,000-12,000 units of the car this year."

The Optra, being manufactured at GMI's Halol plant in Gujarat, has a 1,800cc, 16-valve, DOHC, D-Tec engine, imported from Holden, Australia. It is designed on a new platform from GM's subsidiary in Korea, Daewoo Auto & Technology (GM-DAT), and has a localisation level of 25 per cent.

The Chevrolet Optra will compete with vehicles such as the Skoda Octavia and the Toyota Corolla.

India is among the initial six countries in the Asia-Pacific region where the car is being launched this year, which speaks volumes about GMI's determination to capture a big chunk of the Indian market.

This is the fourth new launch from GMI this year after the Opel Vectra, the Chevrolet Forester and the Opel Corsa Sail. Market rumours have it that the next launch from GMI will be the small car, Chevrolet Spark, based on the Matiz platform, also sourced from GM-DAT.

The company denied that the launch of the Optra will result in the phasing out of the Opel Astra and said it will offer both the models in the country.