Setting The Record Straight: T1 GM Platform Is Not VSS-T
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The T1 GM platform that underpins the new 2019 Silverado and 2019 Sierra is not the same thing as the GM T vehicle set, GM Authority has learned. Before we get into what this means and why it’s important, let’s first go over a little background.
Back in 2017, GM announced plans to migrate away from using 14 core and 12 regional vehicle platforms to instead adopt four number of “vehicle sets.” The new approach was dubbed the Vehicle Set Strategy, or VSS for short. Originally, the plan involved consolidating 26 different GM platforms into just four vehicle sets by the 2025 calendar year (specialized models such as the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette being excepted from that plan).
GM Vehicle Set Strategy (2017 presentation)
The purpose of the VSS effort is to decrease overall complexity and streamline efficiencies across the entire GM organization, including parts procurement/supply, vehicle engineering and development, manufacturing, and after-sales support. Boil it all down, and VSS is a huge effort to drive down costs, decrease time to market for new vehicles, and significantly reduce complexity.
The four VSS platforms planned by GM included:
- VSS-T, a vehicle set for body-on-frame trucks
- VSS-F, a vehicle set for front-wheel-drive cars with transverse powertrain configurations
- The Global Emerging Markets platform, or GEM, is a low-cost derivative of VSS-F
- VSS-R, a vehicle set for rear-wheel-drive cars with longitudinal powertrain configurations
- VSS-S, a vehicle set for crossover utilities
Given VSS-T is intended for trucks (the “T” stands for trucks), many were led to believe it to simply be another name for the GM T1 platform, which underpins the all-new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and 2019 GMC Sierra, the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD and 2020 Sierra HD, as well as GM’s upcoming next-gen 2021 full-size SUVs. But this is not the case, as confirmed by Manager of GM Global Product Development Communications, Chad Lyons.
As of this writing, sources tell us that VSS-T is still planned for GM’s next-generation pickup trucks and SUVs, which should drop in the vicinity of 2025-2026 calendar years, although that timeframe could change. Whispers from industry sources tell us that VSS-T should be infinitely more flexible than any body-on-frame GM platform before it, capable of supporting vehicles of mid- and full-size dimensions.
There are also talks to use VSS-T to underpin GM’s midsize pickup trucks – the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon – after the next-generation models. For reference, the next-gen Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon will be overhauled around 2022-2023 timeframe on an updated version of the 31XX GM platform used by the current models. That updated platform is known internally as 31XX-2. The Colorado and Canyon models after that one could move to VSS-T, around the 2028 timeframe.
We’ll keep our ears to the ground and report as we hear more. Until then, be sure to subscribe to GM Authority for around-the-clock GM news coverage.
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Just a big fancy article saying Gm is going to be even CHEAPER way to go gm is just going to continue to lose market share an make cooike cutter vehicles its getting harder an harder to find fans of Gm
There he is everyone – the chief moron has arrived!
You really don’t get it whatsoever, do you? VSS-T is meant to improve the final product by taking out cost in areas that don’t deliver final value, and funnel them into areas that DO matter. That’s what huge scale allows any business to do… and VSS is meant to increase GM’s scale internally.
Answer me this: what part of this article led you to believe what you wrote? Serious question… though I doubt you’ll actually answer.
Rob an your the chief dumb dumb who I bet can mouth off on in forms but you stay quiet in person it just another way for Gm to be cheap an believe me they going to keep cost down while still putting out mediocre cars an trucks iam pretty sure you have another comment retard rob
You bet huh? How much do you bet, because you bet wrong. Too bad for you.
Again, answer my question: what part of this article led you to believe what you wrote?
This is a platform change. How can you tell whether a platform, especially one that does not even exist yet, will result in any kind of final product? You can’t. You know knowing.
The internet is full of dumb armchair quarterbacks like you who are too pu$$y to even use their real name. I work in a management capacity at an actual automaker. What do you do, moron?
You Sir are an imposter. Your management skills are Nil And It is you who are Numb. Your people skills are non existent.
The slur is unnecessary.
This was not a “slur” it was factual on my part. A company that bows down to the weak minded “fish” is not a company that I will tolerate or support.
slur
/slər/
Learn to pronounce
verb
1.
speak (words or speech) indistinctly so that the sounds run into one another.
“he was slurring his words like a drunk”
synonyms: mumble, speak unclearly, garble, stumble over, stammer; raremisarticulate
“she was slurring her words”
2.
MUSIC
perform (a group of two or more notes) legato.
“I can play it if I don’t slur the notes”
noun
1.
an insinuation or allegation about someone that is likely to insult them or damage their reputation.
“the comments were a slur on the staff”
synonyms: insult, slight, slander, slanderous statement, libel, libelous statement, misrepresentation, defamation, aspersion, calumny, smear; More
2.
an act of speaking indistinctly so that sounds or words run into one another or a tendency to speak in such a way.
“there was a mean slur in his voice”
If you don’t “tolerate” my opinion, then I will not “tolerate” your product! I’ve only bought GM products in the past ,but if they’re going to be “copy’s” of Asian junk I’m out! All I was saying!
Before you say something “stupid” look up the definition before opening your “lib” spewer!!
to say your an idiot is mean to idiots
Don’t try and be clever. You know what you said. You used an insulting word or, as Merriam-Webster defines a slur, an “insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo”.
Don’t try and hide behind ludicrous semantics to justify your use of insulting words. I’m not sure what my or anybody else’s political beliefs have to do with anything but, judging by your string of comments and your angry response, you’re clearly unhinged. Sorry a pickup truck triggered you, snowflake.
Well, this is a garbage fire of a comment section. Hey admins: is this the kind of behavior you want your site to reflect?
But to actually get back on track: using one platform for both mid- and full-size trucks may seem counterintuitive, but Nissan has been doing it since 2005 with both the Titan and Frontier on the F-Alpha platform, and it seems that Ford is planning to do the same with future F-Series and Rangers. When you’ve only got one BOF platform, you’ve gotta make do.
If by unitized you mean unibody, then you grossly misunderstood what’s happening here. It’s not unibody. It’s ladder frame / body on frame.
Play nice guys ,its all opinions, but GM, should look at there market you have to spend close to 50 grand to get a truck with a 6.2 to tow your boat, have to get leather, and all the other crap you dont want, your seats in your trucks are terrible. inside is boarder line cheep looking and the new Chevy trucks are ugly. I volunteer to be on your next design focus group, again thats an opion,