General Motors India has announced the launch of the Chevrolet Beat and Sail hatchback Manchester United Limited Edition. The company is celebrating Chevrolet’s shirt sponsorship with the football club.

Based on the LS variant, the Manchester United Limited Edition cars are available in both, petrol and diesel options and cost Rs. 69,000 more than the regular models.

The Manchester United Limited Edition cars are painted in Super Red and sport Manchester United decals, alloy wheels, roof rails, ORVM’s with integrated turn indicators and exclusive branding. On the inside, Chevrolet has provided special seat covers, music system and illuminated scuff plates.

The Beat and Sail hatchback Manchester United Limited Editions were showcased at the 2014 Auto Expo held earlier this year. The two models were designed by the General Motors Technical Centre India (GMTC-I) in Bangalore.

General Motors India has announced that it will start production of vehicles for export at its Talegaon plant in Maharashtra in the second half of 2014. The vehicles will be exported to Chile and sales are expected to commence in the first quarter of 2015.

The company has disclosed that its first export model will be the Chevrolet Beat hatchback. The car will be built as a left hand drive and in both, petrol and diesel variants. Apart from India the Beat is built and sold in many markets across the world.

General Motors India claims that the exports will create more employment opportunities in the company and supplier community. It will also help in improving the capacity utilisation of the Talegaon plant.

Apart from Talegaon, General Motors India has a plant in Halol in the state of Gujarat.

General Motors India has given the Beat hatchback a mild update. The India-spec car gets refreshed interiors with satin inserts on the dashboard while the driver seat of the car gets the height adjustment feature. Globally, the Chevrolet Beat has gotten refreshes in two locations: USA and South Africa. While the US-spec Beat (known as the Spark in that part of the world) gets minor updates, the facelifted South Africa-spec Beat comes with a much more comprehensive makeover.

In light of the more extensive changes to the Beat globally, a comprehensive revamp could be on the cards for the Indian version of the car in the next year or so. The Beat that's sold in India is available with the maximum number of engine variants when compared with its global peers. The car comes with a 1.2 liter petrol engine (80 Bhp-108 Nm), 936cc-3 cylinder turbo diesel engine (58 Bhp-150 Nm) and a petrol-LPG motor (78 Bhp-104 Nm).

All three engines get a five speed manual gearbox as standard. The Chevrolet Beat Diesel comes with a ARAI certified fuel efficiency figure of 25.44 Kmpl, making the car the most fuel efficient diesel hatchback in India. The top end variants of the car come with ABS+EBD and twin airbags as standard. The car also gets automatic climate control, power assisted wing mirrors and a tilt steering in the top end versions.

Although the Beat hatchback is the least priced diesel powered car in General Motors's Indian line up, sales have been far from encouraging as the recently launched Sail U-VA hatchback seems to have eaten into the Beat's market share. With General Motors suspending the production of the diesel powered Sail hatchback and sedan due to quality issues in the engine, the focus seems to be back on boosting sales of the Beat. 

The petrol variants of the Beat starts at 3.88 lakh rupees, the LPG variants at 4.47 lakh rupees and the diesel powered variants at 4.73 lakh rupees. All prices reflect ex-showroom Delhi figures. As a limited period offer, General Motors India is offering the Beat hatchback's base petrol variant at 3.39 lakh rupees.