GM builds Spark sedan, but not for Oz

General Motors yesterday launched its Chevrolet Essentia at the Delhi Auto Expo in India, promising the new micro-segment sedan will revitalise Chevrolet sales in the south-Asian market economy where it is to be built.

The new car will ride on the same platform as the next-generation Spark (formerley Barina Spark), which Holden is anticipating will be a major improvement on the current model, and is due to arrive within two months.

But as eagerly awaited as the new Spark may be – at Fishermans Bend, at least– its booted sibling looks unlikely to come to Australia.

A Holden insider has intimated to motoring.com.au that the Essentia is an outside chance at best to join the local range. The concept car that was revealed in Delhi is not even a definite prospect for production.

There's "no firm commitment" to export the Essentia, a GM spokesperson flatly declared in Delhi yesterday, but former Holden boss Mike Devereux also told motoring.com.au that the booted Barina will certainly be exported to global markets.

"We have to, right?" Devereux said. Indian domestic sales for the micro sedan –- in a market only about three million strong –- probably won't be enough in isolation to justify production of the three-box light passenger car.

Just don't count Australia as one of the future export markets for the Essentia.