General Motors South Africa announced the production this week of the first locally manufactured Chevrolet Sparks at its Struandale plant.
GMSA says its the first time in 31 years that a Chevrolet passenger vehicle has been built at the South African plant.
GMSA Vice President of Manufacturing, Mike Pearton, says a brand new multi-million rand body shop had been installed in support of the Spark.
"This modern new facility is packed with the latest technology for the production of the Spark," he said.
He says the new Spark, previously imported from Korea will be an important player in the rapidly growing Chevrolet product portfolio in South Africa which has grown by 50.3% in 2011 compared with 2010.
Pearton says the Spark was also the top performing passenger vehicle in the 2011 Synovate Product Quality Awards.
"With just 17 faults per 100 vehicles, the standard measure in vehicle quality surveys, the Spark featured ahead of even top end luxury vehicles available to South African buyers - a superb performance for this stylish small car from Chevrolet," said Pearton.
The Spark assembly programme forms part of a R1 bn investment in three new product programmes of which the third generation Chevrolet Utility came on stream late last year. "The sixth generation Isuzu KB goes into production the first half of 2013," he said.
GM International Operations President, Tim Lee (right), joined GMSA President and Managing Director, Edgar Lourencon, on a tour of the Struandale plant to view the production of the first Chevrolet Sparks
