GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., said Friday that sales of its turbo engined vehicles have leaped this year, helping drive up its domestic sales.
  
The carmaker, which sells cars under the Chevrolet badge, said sales of its turbo equipped Trax small crossover, Cruze compact and Aveo sub-compact models surged 88.5 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared to 2013. Combined sales of these vehicles hit 12,157 units, accounting for 9.8 percent of all GM Korea-made cars sold in the country so far in 2014. 
  
GM Korea has its Ecotech family of downsized engines. 
   
The carmaker, South Korea's third largest, said such higher demand played a part in the 4.1 percent rise in car sales vis-a-vis the previous year. Total sales of all cars made by the company reached 123,928 units, which is the highest number reached in the January-October period since GM Korea was launched in 2002.
   
Reflecting such popularity, the carmaker said it has launched a refreshed version of the Aveo for the 2015 model year, equipped with its 1.4-liter gasoline turbo engine used on the Trax and Cruze vehicles.
   
The turbo-charged Aveo has been designed to be more responsive to driver input with minimum turbo lag, according to the carmaker.

The car, rated at 140 horsepower, also has a broader torque band starting at 3,000 revolutions per minute and reaching 4,500 rpm when a maximum torque of 20.4 kilogram-meters can be sustained.
   
Broader torque bands translate into better responsiveness at wider speed ranges. 
   
The Aveo comes standard with a tire pressure monitoring system, hill start assist and electronic stability control. With the manual six-speed transmission, the car can get 14.9 kilometers per liter combined.
   
Good mileage means less greenhouse gas emission, which can help the company cope with more stringent government requirements to slow down global warming. 
  
Sergio Rocha, the company CEO, told reporters at the Chevrolet Turbo Track Day event south of Seoul that the carmaker is facing tough technical challenges.
  
Meeting the 97 gram per kilometer emission limit and 24.3 kilometers per liter mileage is not easy for any carmaker, he said, adding that meeting safety, noise and other standards are also posing problems.
   
Seoul has said the emission and mileage targets must be met by 2020.
   
Rocha said that rise in labor costs will adversely affect the South Korean auto industry as a whole.
   
While the decision to pull the Chevrolet brand out of Europe has caused a drop in exports, some of the slack has been taken up by shipments to Uzbekistan, he said. (Yonhap)