General Motors is capitalizing on consumers’ ongoing love affair with crossovers by introducing the third-generation 2018 Chevrolet Equinox CUV in China. The recently-overhauled compact crossover accounted for 4,600 deliveries in August in China.
The Equinox entered into China’s highly-competitive crossover space in April, and has since accounted for 3,500 deliveries in July, 5,400 in June and roughly 4,000 in May. Most recently, Chevrolet introduced the Equinox RS appearance package exclusively for the Chinese market.
Chevrolet Equinox RS is exclusive to the Chinese market (for now)
Though the figures do add a healthy dose of sales volume to Chevrolet’s bottom line, Equinox sales pale in comparison compared to its D2 platform mate – the Buick Envision, whose sales surpassed 15,000 units in August.
The different in popularity between the Envision and Equinox is interesting, and be caused by several reasons, including the strength of the Buick brand in China, the constrained availability of the Equinox in the country, or possibly the need for marketing of the brand new nameplate in the world’s largest automotive market.
We have reached out to GM China for comment but haven’t heard back at the time of publication. We will update this article if/when we get a response.
Comments
Chevy’s new Equinox is selling well in China; but if Chevy were to integrate the hybrid drivetrain from the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu into the Equinox, sales of the Equinox may still improve especially if a Chevy Equinox Hybrid were to get mileage equal to the highway 49 mpg of the 2017 Malibu Hybrid and better than the Equinox Diesel’s 39 mpg mileage.
Yup, more variants are always welcome. But it doesn’t look like there are plans to hybridize this generation… at least not at the current moment. Would expect more for the next-generation on the VSS-F toolkit.
I expect hybrids but the larger frontal area will take changes to match the Malibu.
Hybrids are not one size fits all. Also the added cost can be an issue in selling enough to cover the investment.