Recent news about the recall of over 114000 Chevrolet Tavera units has rocked the GM boat. The company was forced to take action on the issue and has fired the vice president of global engine engineering along with ten other powertrain employees. The man under the hammer, Mr. Sam Winegarden was earlier part of the development of the Northstar V8 and V6 engines that currently powers a number of Cadillac models in the US.
The chain of events began with GM announcing the halt in production of its Tavera MUV along with the Sail sedan and hatchback models after detecting emissions issues with the engine. A routine check conducted by the ARAI revealed that the BS III compliant Tavera failed to pass the standard emission norms. The engines under scrutiny were the 2.5-litre turbocharged diesel engine manufactured by AVTEC Limited and the 2.0-litre turbo diesel produced by ICML.
News has now emerged that several GM employees were manipulating test engines to rig test results. This revelation triggered GM to set up an enquiry which resulted in the termination of employee contracts.
Though the company had recently announced that the production will commence by the end of July for the Sail models the issue has turned out to be more critical than just a minor glitch. The actions taken by the company certifies the magnitude of the issue which has heavily impacted the company’s sales figures heavily. The Tavera sales from May to June fell from nearly 1500 units to none as the company was forced to stop sales for the model until the issue was resolved. But, beyond just numbers, GM now has its work cut out if they need to improve the brand perception in the country which may have been dented by this issue.
Source: AutoNews
