The small SUV segment is anticipated to grow by about 80 percent over the next few years. That is, according to General Motors. And as a matter of fact, GM’s Chevrolet brand is banking on it; the 2015 Chevrolet Trax will be sold here at home for the first time beginning early next year.
The Chevrolet Trax has already been sold in 66 other markets since 2012. Chevrolet is proud of the 180,000 units moved since that time. But as current market trends show, over the next several years, Chevrolet would do well to sell the model domestically, too.
The city crossover will start at just $20,995, and for that you get no small measure of efficiency, plentiful creature comforts, and cargo flexibility in one sharp-looking package. The former is evident in the 2015 Chevrolet Trax’s 34 mpg highway, thanks largely to its 1.4 liter Ecotec powerplant. The latter is a result of not only the standard 60/40-split fold-flat rear seat, but also a segment-exclusive fold-flat front seat for moving particularly long items.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax is also boasting near-Kia Soul/Jeep Renegade quantities of total storage capacity, with 18.7 cubic-feet behind the rear seat, and 48.4 cubic-feet total with the rear seats folded down. The best news yet is the ridiculously under-priced AWD option, which only costs an additional $1,500 on the 2015 Chevrolet Trax.
Chevrolet is counting on attaining a significant head-start in the US small SUV segment with the 2015 Trax. By getting the jump in the American market, the other domestic automakers can only, well, follow in Chevy’s “trax.”
You can read our first-drive review of the 2015 Chevrolet Trax by clicking this link.
Comments
Here’s a thought , what if GM weren’t so overloaded with such ponderous management that they could actually , more readily , anticipate market trends to be in the mix with the competition when buying trends develop , not years after the fact . The hugely popular Ford Escape , the Honda CR-V and the Kia and Hyundai smaller models have had huge sales increases over the years , and TADA ,now Chevrolet enters with the Traxx . Let the world rejoice , I suppose if Chevy enters the race , it must be a valid market segment after all !! Buick already has the Encore , but Chevy , as the value priced leader , this should be the starting focal point to validate the concept . How will Chevy Traxx , now entering this already crowded small crossover segment , ever get a strong market share , by being last man in , is simply beyond me .
The Ford Escape/Honda CRV are both larger than the Trax or Encore and are compact CUV’s. Escape is 178″ and CRV is 179.4″. Encore and Trax are 168″ and are subcompact CUV’s.
Neither Ford nor Honda have a vehicle in this segment though they probably have one coming(ecosport and HR-V). In actuality Encore was first in for sub compact CUV’s (in the US with any volume) and was brought in as a Buick so it could be more profitable than a Chevy would have been in what was a tiny segment of the market and with normally low profit small vehicles. I know the Kia Soul is out there but I think it is so ugly I do not want to talk about it:)
The Equinox, which sells like mad and keeps increasing volume every year is 187″. I t is currently the competitor to the Escape and CRV, just a bit larger. So the issue is that GM does not have the exact same sizes as the other two but will staddle them, at least until the newer and smaller Equinox is released.
“Moving the popular Equinox and Terrain crossovers from Theta to D2 will result in a smaller exterior footprint, thereby making the vehicles truly compact in size — compared to the current models’ “between compact and midsize” positioning. Doing so will allow the next-gen models to go head-to-head with market sales leaders such as the Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4, and Honda CR-V, among others. The repositioning will coincide with a similar reduction in size of the next-generation Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave as they migrate to the E2XX platform and become “true” midsize CUVs, with possible extended-length full-size variants.”
Read more: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2014/03/d2xx-platform-to-spawn-smaller-next-gen-chevy-equinox-gmc-terrain-buick-cuv-opel-antara/#ixzz3KkiorDCE
With the 160 million that GM is spending at the Orion Assembly plant I wonder if they might build the Traxx there?