History of Chevrolet Car Company
Even though Chevrolet Cars have colosed down their operations in India for now, we still have a page on the Chevrolet cars, because they were an active part of the history of cars in India. Chevrolet is the oldest foreign car company to set up production facilities in India. Chevrolet had a assembly line way back in 1928 in Bombay or Mumbai now. It is not the first time that Chevrolet has closed its production operations in India. In the early 1950s the Indian Government asked all the foreign car companies to quit India and so Chevrolet shut its factories in India. But they came back to resume production in India and may do so again.
Chevrolet USA completed 100 years of it founding in 2011 and General Motors the owners of the Chevrolet brand put up a special 100th Anniversary Chevrolet website. This is a very informative website about the history of Chevrolet
Chevrolet was founded in the USA in 1911 to produce cars by Louis Chevrolet (a Swiss race car driver who immigrated to America) and William C. Durant, the founder of the General Motors (GM). Chevrolet became a part of GM in 1918. In the US Chevrolet cars are simply called a "Chevy".
Chevrolet uses a Bowtie design, as shown on the left, as its logo. This famous bowtie logo is said to be the idea of Mr. William Durant who saw the design on a wall paper in Paris, and carried a cutting of it in his wallet hoping to use it for an automobile company he dreamed of forming
Book on history of General Motors
There is a great book titled "My years with General Motors" written by Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, who was for a long time, during the formative years of GM, the President, Chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Everyone who is interested in the car industry must read this book, it is just inspirational.
This is how the book is described in the online store Amazon.in
"From the book flap: Only a handful of business books have reached the status of a classic, having withstood the test of over thirty years' time. Even today, Bill Gates praises MY YEARS WITH GENERAL MOTORS as the best book to read on business, and Business Week has named it the number one choice for its "bookshelf of indispensable reading." MY YEARS WITH GENERAL MOTORS became an instant bestseller when it was first published in 1963. It has since been used as a manual for managers, offering personal glimpses into the practice of the "discipline of management" by the man who perfected it. This is the story no other businessman could tell--a distillation of half a century of intimate leadership experience with a giant industry and an inside look at dramatic events and creative business management."
Below we have a picture of one of the earliest Cheverolet production cars being driven by the founder Mr. Louis Chevrolet in 1911
History of Chevrolet company in India
Chevrolet is actually the oldest foreign car company to start car manufacturing in India. Chevrolet had a assembly line way back in 1928 in Bombay. In the early 1950s when the Indian Government asked all the foreign car companies to quit India, Chevrolet ceased it operations in India.
When the Indian Government liberalised the car industry in India in 1993, General Motors (GM) the parent company of Chevrolet made a 50-50 joint venture with Hindustan motors to produce Opel cars in India (Opel is the German arm of GM). The Opel cars did not succeed in India and in 1999 GM bought 100% of the Opel joint venture. The factory continued producing Opel cars till 2003 when production of Opel cars in India was stopped. The Opel factory in Halol, Gujarat served as the production base for Chevrolet cars in India. The official name of the Chevrolet company in India is "Chevrolet Sales India Private Limited" with its head office in Gurgaon near Delhi.