The Indian subsidiary of the US based leading car maker General Motors is gearing-up to launch an electric variant of its best selling India portfolio car – Chevrolet Spark – by year 2013. The Chevrolet Spark Electric will be competing with the Nissan Leaf in the global market. While US will be a major market for the electric version of Spark, the car will also be rolled-out in a number of other countries. However, the company is yet to reveal exact timeline for the launch, pricing and specification details of the car.
The Chevrolet Spark electric will be powered by highly advanced nanophosphate A123 system lithium ion battery, which reduces the overall operating cost of the car considerably. It will be a city oriented car that has specially been designed while taking into consideration the needs and requirements of the urban buyers. The new Chevrolet Spark Electric will be more compact as compared to the cars like Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus. However, it will be longer as compared to Smart Fortwo and Fiat 500.
Besides Chevrolet Spark Electric, the company is also developing electric version of Chevrolet Beat, which was recently showcased in the National Capital. Moreover, the company is also developing a Opel Meriva minivan in Germany which can run 40 miles in a single charge with a top speed of 81 miles per hour.
