Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

GM Uzbekistan, an Uzbek-American joint venture, has started serial production of the Chevrolet Labo cars, the company reported on July 29.

Chevrolet Labo is a mini-truck with a load capacity of 550 kilograms. It was created as a modification of already produced Damas minibus. The car is equipped with a three-cylinder engine of 0.8 liter with a capacity of 38 hp and five-speed manual transmission.

This mini-truck with an open board body is designed for transportation in urban and rural areas for short distances.

Production of the car is deployed at Khorezm Auto plant. The design capacity of the conveyor line is 5,000 cars per year. The cost of the project is $5.9 million.

GM Uzbekistan JV, formerly known as UzDaewooAuto, was established in 1996 on a parity basis by Uzbekistan and South Korean Daewoo Motors.

In 2005, Uzbekistan acquired Daewoo’s shares in UzDaewooAuto. Then in 2007, Uzavtoprom and the U.S.-based General Motors signed an agreement to establish GM Uzbekistan with an authorized capital of $266.7 million.

General Motors owns a 25 percent plus one stake in GM Uzbekistan with the possibility of increasing total shares to 40 percent. At the moment, 75 percent of the shares belong to the Uzavtoprom.

Currently, GM Uzbekistan produces nine brands of cars, in particular sedans of Nexia, Cobalt, Lacetti and Malibu, two subcompact - Matiz and Spark, offroader - Captiva, minivan - Orlando, minibus - Damas and mini-truck Labo.

GM Uzbekistan produced 119,412 cars in the first half of 2015. Last year the JV produced 245,600 cars, some 55,200 of which were exported to foreign markets.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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