Joining the Orlando MPV and Cruze hatchback show car on the Chevrolet stand at the Paris auto will be the Aveo five-door, which like the Orlando will make its world production debut.
The Aveo RS show car was displayed at Detroit and Geneva earlier in 2010 and the production version has inherited its bold front treatment with exposed dual headlights and dual-port grille, compact body panels with rising shoulder line and short rear overhang, the "hidden" rear door handles in the C pillar and the "body in, wheels out" profile which is very much part of the contemporary Chevrolet design language.
The new Aveo bears a strong family resemblance to the recently introduced Spark and is intended to appeal to younger customers with its sporty hot-hatch look. A four-door sedan variant will be launched alongside the hatch in 2011.
GM says the new Aveo has benefited from an extensive development programme that resulted in a small car tailored to European tastes in both design and dynamics. Final specifications of the new Aveo will be carefully tailored to each market.
Wayne Brannon, president of Chevrolet Europe, said: "It's just such an exciting time to be at Chevrolet; not only do we have new entries into the MPV and compact classes, in Aveo we have a car which is ready to compete against the best in the small-car segment, which is also Europe's largest segment."
The new Aveo, he explained, was longer and wider than the current model, giving it a spacious interior and cargo volume among the best in its class. The interior design perhaps held even more surprises than the outside, he added, in particular the motorcycle-inspired instrument binnacle with an analogue tachometer combined with a digital speedometer and warning lights.
Up-market blue backlighting features on the centre console while the front of the cabin is enveloped in a wrap-round fascia. This can be colour-coded and flows from the dash into both the driver's and front passenger's doors.
The new Aveo's chassis has been fine-tuned for European tastes to combine comfort with responsiveness. Electric power steering, stability control and antilock brakes will be standard.
A range of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines will be available in the new Aveo, incorporating the latest technologies such as variable valve timing, double continuous variable cam phasing and common-rail fuel injection for the diesels.
The petrol engine range includes two 1.2-litre versions (52kW and 64kW), a 74kW, 1.4-litre and a 1.6-litre engine. For the first time on a GM product, the Aveo will be offered with two versions of a 1.3-litre diesel engine (55kW and 70kW) a start-stop feature.
Chevrolet's first six-speed automatic transmission on a small car will debut on the Aveo 1.4 and 1.6 as an option in most markets; manual transmissions will have five or six speeds depending on engine choice.