The announcement of General Motors to acquire the car assembly plant of Daewoo Motors in India has revived the hope of the relaunch of Daewoo's compact car Matiz as Chevrolet Spark by General Motors.

"We will utilise the assembly line for manufacturing a mini (compact) car, to be launched next year," GMI vice-president (corporate affairs) P Balendran told PTI, but declined to give details.

In China, General Motors has been manufacturing Daewoo's Matiz as Chevrolet Spark. The domestic automobile industry has been dogged by reports of the relaunch of Matiz by the world's biggest carmaker.

The Indian arm of South Korea's bankrupt Daewoo Motor used to manufacture Matiz, a hugely popular car in the compact car category, and other passenger sedans Cielo and Nexia.

The volume-driven Indian mini or compact car segment is largely dominated by Maruti's Alto, Zen, WagonR, Hyundai's Santro, and Tata Motors' Indica.

It may be mentioned here that GMI, which entered the number spinning premium small car segment only last year, aims to double sales by virtue of the acquisition.

The domestic compact car constitutes almost 78 per cent of the total car sales.