Last year was the year of offensive for Chevrolet as they launched many new products in the Indian market, however, we were left wondering about their continued negligence to the fastest growing compact SUV segment.
They had the mini-Captiva Trax in international markets which created a lot of stir and bringing it to India seemed to be the next logical step. However, that is not going to happen and Chevrolet, according to Autocarindia.com, is going to unveil a sub-four-meter SUV concept at the coming Auto Expo 2014.
We had been betting on Chevy introducing the new Trax/Tracker in India some time soon, but apparently they had a boardroom round-robin where they figured out that a competitively priced sub-4 compact SUV will make the most sense. And in came the news of a Gamma II-based crossover concept.
General Motor’s Gamma II platform carries a slew of production and concept cars and is based on GM’s Global Small Vehicle architecture. Chevy Spark/Beat, Sail, Trax, Buick Encore, Vauxhall Mokka and even the Trax ride on this very platform. The new Compact SUV concept for the Auto Expo, in all probability, will definitely share a lot of commonalities with the Trax.
As for the engine, the 75PS/90PS 1.3L Multijet diesel is almost given, the petrol may be the 1.2L motor from Sail.
The speculative renderings of the said compact SUV at Autocar look stunning. And since it is a concept, one could expect it to be an eye candy. Will it make it to production? That will depend on the reaction it gets during the Expo.
The initial euphoria sounds emphatic, however, if Chevrolet wants to unsettle the Dusters and EcoSports on this subcontinent, they better have something as loaded as their Trax/Tracker and cheaper. Much, much cheaper.
