General Motors South Africa has announced the commencement of shipping to dealers of the South African built Chevrolet Spark.

With this manufacturing milestone for the Port Elizabeth-based subsidiary of global automotive giant General Motors, comes the realignment of the pricing structure of this popular entry-level model from Chevrolet.

"In the spirit of the freedom that South Africa marks with the celebration of Freedom Day, I am happy to announce a re-aligned pricing structure with a meaningful reduction in price for our popular Chevrolet Spark coupled to the shipping of the locally produced model," Malcolm Gauld, GMSA's Vice President Sales and Marketing, said.

"The new price for the entry level model Spark is now R107 500 inclusive of VAT, a reduction in price of 7 percent. There is even better news for those that want to go a bit more up market with their trim level with an upgrade to the Spark LS. This model now retails for R116 500 inclusive of VAT, a saving of 9.7 percent over the imported model. This makes the Spark a serious contender in the entry level market and an excellent value proposition.

"The shipping to dealers of the first locally produced Chevrolet Sparks marks the completion of the second phase of a three-phase major investment programme at our Struandale plant that will bring GMSA fully into line with the government’s Automotive Production Development Plan (APDP) with a targeted annual local production of 50 000 vehicles. The first phase of the investment programme was completed with the introduction of the new Chevrolet Utility late in 2011. The local production of the Spark, the second locally produced model in our line up, sees the completion of the second phase. Phase three, the introduction of a new Isuzu light commercial model, will be completed during the course of 2013.

"The successful implementation of the localisation programme for the Spark has brought numerous advantages for the company. One of these is a significant saving in costs and a degree of insulation from imported cost pressures, another is improved manufacturing synergies with other overseas GM plants, such as GM Korea. More important than these however is the opportunity to create a number of sustainable new job opportunities, both at our own manufacturing facilities and at component suppliers.

GMSA has also introduced an optional sports kit available for the Spark LS at a cost of R3000 including VAT. The new pricing structure for the Spark and Spark LS is effective as of 26 April 2012.