Trucks Deemphasized in Chevy's New Direction
December 17, 2009

Chevrolet's "Like A Rock" trucks and SUVS may be gathering a little moss in the coming years as General Motors Co.'s most important division shifts gears to concentrate on cars and crossovers, said new Chevrolet general manager Jim Campbell at a media event in Detroit Wednesday.

Noting that many would be surprised to know the now fully global Chevy sells 61 percent of its volume outside the U.S., Campbell said the home turf will be where the action is in the coming years.

"Chevrolet's biggest growth opportunity is right here in our own country," Campbell said, adding that new expansion will come "on the back of cars and crossovers."

The division that accounts for 70 percent of GM's sales relied on its longstanding strength in pickups and SUVs to fuel sales for the past several years, but pickups and other large, low-economy vehicles have fallen out of favor with customers, with political and environmental pressures also cutting into the big vehicles' attraction.

Campbell said Chevrolet will be emphasizing a new and expansive crop of cars and crossovers - vehicles such as the Cruze compact debuted in North America at the recent Los Angeles auto show and a new generation of the subcompact Aveo - as GM restructures after bankruptcy and pushes to convince customers its vehicles are world-class.

Campbell said Chevy will be looking not only to the U.S., but also  and Latin America and South America for its prime growth opportunities.

It is widely believed GM has chosen to delay its next generation of fullsize pickups - and the SUVs based on pickup underpinnings - to prioritize development of less profligate vehicles. After a fuel-price runup deeply scarred the popularity of pickups and SUVs last summer, their sales have been in steady decline, and new U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy legislation also has clouded the future for high-consumption vehicles.

Campbell, whose father also worked at GM, said one of the brand's most important jobs is to continue to close the "perception gap" GM has with buyers. He said the company still has not convinced the public its vehicles are of world-class quality and design.

Campbell also told AutoObserver that Chevrolet "has a challenge on the West Coast, California particularly," a region where buyers long have gravitated to import brands, but also because the economic downturn hit California - and the GM dealers there - particularly hard. - Bill Visnic, Senior Contributing Editor  

Photo by GM

General Motors officially introduced the 2010 Chevrolet Cruze at the recent Los Angeles auto show.  

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