Chevrolet Beat Essentia to be unveiled at Auto Expo

Indians have an obsession with sedans. For most, a sedan is more premium and expensive than a hatchback because it comes with a protruding boot. However, not everyone has the budget to go for a C-Segment sedan which were once the typical choice for a car other than a hatchback.

This gave rise to the much loved (or hated) compact sedan segment. Various manufacturers wanted to benefit from the sub 4-metre excise duty rule and hence they started developing compact sedans.

The segment started off with the Tata Indigo CS but caught attention once Maruti launched the Swift DZire. Although not a sub 4-metre car in its initial avatar, it went on to become a big hit and still remains so in its current avatar.

Post this, Honda, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Ford came in with their offerings and most of the cars have been successful, some more than their hatchback siblings. Now, Chevrolet is trying to get into this segment with a sedan based on the Beat’s platform.

To be unveiled at the 2016 Auto Expo, the compact sedan from Chevrolet has been named the Beat Essentia. Under development since 2013, the car is finally ready to be shown to the public post which it will be tested.

The launch will happen in the first half of 2017 and it will compete with the Maruti Swift DZire, Ford Figo Aspire, Hyundai Xcent, Honda Amaze and Tata Zest. Some of its competitors have multiple tricks up their sleeves and sell very well.

The surprising bit about the compact sedan segment is that the launch of a new car in this space doesn’t affect the sales of other cars by a noticeable margin. Somehow, it finds a new set of buyers and this reaffirms the fact that Indians love their sedans.

Whether the Chevrolet Beat Essentia will be able to do the same or not remains to be seen. If priced well, it has a fair chance of being successful.