Spy shots show the next-generation Opel Mokka X testing for the first time out in the wild and it looks evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. But, that’s not a terrible thing. The Mokka X has been a smash hit in Europe and it’s credited with helping increase Buick showroom traffic the n’th degree after GM imported the car as the Encore.
The bigger question is where GM goes for its next-generation Buick Encore and Chevrolet Trax. Both subcompact crossovers currently ride on the Gamma 2 platform, which the Mokka X shares. Currently, both the Trax and Encore hail from South Korea, Mexico and Spain, but it’s unclear where the cars will firmly call home with the next-generation cars. GM’s presence in South Korea hangs in the balance due to high labor rates and GM sold its European operations along with Opel and Vauxhall to PSA Groupe. PSA and Opel will shift production of the Mokka X wholly from Spain to Germany with the next-generation car.
That leaves Mexico or a U.S. facility as the most likely candidates unless GM decides to build the next cars in China. Right now, the Buick Envision and Cadillac CT6 Plug-In Hybrid are exported from China to the U.S.
The new Mokka X will certainly ride on a PSA platform as the French automaker works to accelerate the transition away from GM intellectual property to its own. For the next Trax and Encore, GM will tap the G2XX platform, which succeeds Gamma 2.
Spy shots: Motor1
Comments
The car in these spy shots taken in Germany are not an Opel product, but an Opel development.
PSA Group sttopped every project on GM’s underpinnings, like the next Corsa, and probabbly, the Mokka too. These test-mule is the next-gen Chevrolet Trax/Buick Encore and the design has a surprise…
https://www.motor.es/noticias/chevrolet-trax-fotos-espia-201741640.html
For whatever it’s worth, I did read that Cadillac was intending to build an XT9 on Encore’s platform.
Maybe just a rumor …?
XT9 on a encore platform would be a stretch. If you say a XT9 on the Enclave platform would be believable.
Doh! Dang, sorry. Enclave.
Sorry, still shaking off my food coma.
No Worries! But again im not too sure for an encore sized Cadillac as rest if not some of the subcompact luxury crossover are still based on their compact counterparts
I’m reasonably certain that whatever this is, it’s not the next Mokka and at a guess is a future Buick.
As has already been pointed out, the next Mokka will be a PSA affair, not a GM affair. Months after PSA’s acquisition of Opel Group, it’s far too soon for a lightly camouflaged PSA derived Mokka to be out and about on German roads. Also and from 2019, the Eisenach plant is scheduled to be building an all-new 7-seat SUV, with Corsa and Adam production scheduled to switch from Eisenach to Zaragoza. Whatever this vehicle is, it certainly isn’t a 7-seat SUV.
So I’d be reasonably certain the Mokka X replacement is already on sale in Opel and Vauxhall showrooms as the PSA engineered and Zaragoza built Crossland X.
The Trax is a subcompact with barely space for 5. The Mexican plant just assembles kits imported from Korea, where the engines are also produced.
The update would have already been designed in Germany and was part of the sale. The next Trax is almost certainly going to come from Korea, its unlikely GM will find a buyer for its Korean plants given the political situation there.
General Motors announced that they plan to introduced 2 new EVs by 2019 with one of the electric vehicles being a crossover; this new electric CUV could be the new Encore with a range of possibly 150-200 miles.
I recommend building the Buick Encore and Chevy Trax in the U.S. or in Mexico, which will keep both as “Made in America”.