Hicom-Chevrolet Pte Ltd is banking on the cruz 1.8 sedan passenger car, to be launched in the third quarter of this year, to boost sales in Malaysia.

"It will be launched in late July or early August." said its chief executive officer Sanjeev Garg.
He said the car would be brought in from South Korea. Currently, the company on average, sells about 60 to 70 vehicles a month.

"It should be at least 100 to 200 units per month after the launch of the Cruze," he said.

Last year, HICOM Chevrolet sold about 1,000 units. HICOM-Chevrolet which is the appointed sales, disuibution and marketing company for the Chevrolet brand in Malaysia, is a joint venture company between General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings LLC (GMAPH)and DRB-Hicom Bhd.

GMAPH holds a 51 percent stake in Hicom Chevrolet. Sanjeev said sales were down to between 30 to 35 percent in the first quarter of 2009 when compared to 2008.But he noted that in the first quarter of last year, there were new launches.

He also said that HICOM-Chevrolet is expanding its distribution networks from seven currently to about 20 to 25 by the end of this year but not all would be sales, service and spare parts (3S) centres. Among the locations arc Alor Setar, Langkawi and Kuching. "The overall market is good in Malaysia," he said. Asked about spare parts, he said 80 to 90 percent of it was sourced from the Asia Pacific region.
Going forward, he explained, plans are on track to introduce com­pact cars in 2011.