Few cars are as dominant in their market segments as the Chevy Spark. GM’s city hatch is one of the automaker’s big success stories: GM is now the undisputed leader in a segment it has not traditionally competed in. There is just one problem – The General is struggling to build enough to meet demand.
GM Authority has learned that landed, or on-the-ground, inventory of the Spark was running at just 14 days as of the end of May and into the first few days of June. This is well below the 26 days’ supply at the end of April, and suggests a wild (and increasing) excess of demand over supply.
The car is built at the GM Changwon plant in South Korea. As GM Authority exclusively reported a few days ago, production of the 2022 Chevy Spark began there on June 7th. Given the need to build as many possible, any delay in producing the Spark would have been very unfortunate, but it’s unlikely that there was a problem in this case.
The 2022 Spark is exactly the same as the outgoing 2021 Chevy Spark in almost every respect. The only difference is that three exterior colors – Passion Fruit, Toasted Marshmallow and Caribbean Blue – have been discontinued, while another three – Crimson Metallic, Blue Glow Metallic and Nitro Yellow Metallic – have been added.
Sales Numbers - Mainstream City Cars - Q1 2021 - United States
| MODEL | Q1 21 / Q1 20 | Q1 21 | Q1 20 | Q1 21 SHARE | Q1 20 SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHEVROLET SPARK | +23.02% | 11,505 | 9,352 | 62% | 65% |
| MITSUBISHI MIRAGE | +49.20% | 6,932 | 4,646 | 38% | 32% |
| FIAT 500 | -98.78% | 4 | 327 | 0% | 2% |
| TOTAL | +28.73% | 18,441 | 14,325 |
In the United States, the Chevy Spark has the mainstream city car market segment all to itself. Now that the Fiat 500 has been discontinued, Chevrolet‘s only rival in this space is the Mitsubishi Mirage, which the Spark easily outsold by 11,505 units to 6,932 in Q1 of 2021.
Clearly, the Mirage is still finding customers, but the little Chevy’s dominance is almost inevitable. It has 20 more horsepower, three more airbags and a standard seven-inch display screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And in our opinion, the Spark also looks much better and drives even more so. Priced to start at $14,595, including destination charge, it remains the most affordable car currently on sale in the U.S.
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Comments
With gas going Up wee need little cars again until we get rid of sleepy Joke.
I want the Spark to be discontinued
Because.. ?
@TGG: Because Omar sells Mitsubishi? lol
That was mean…! :-{)}}}
Haha. Mean, but true?? Otherwise, why would Omar say such a silly thing?
Because, in fact, he sells BMW i3s.
lol
Daniel I guess you forgot how much gas cost in 2020 before the pandemic?
The 1LT Spark is lowkey the absolute best deal you can get on any new gm product. Unfortunately, lowercase gm discontinued all there competitive subcompact plus segment vehicles because they didn’t creat enough profit for Mary Barra. Get the Spark well you still can because I’m sure a low price, practical vehicle like this is on Mary’s chopping block.
“LOWER-CASE GM! LOWER-CASE GM!”
squawk squawk
(whistle)
Here’s your saltine, Polly Parrot.
Lower-case GM. We GET it.
I guess you REALLY like uppercases and hyphens. However, in the English language, there is no hyphen in the word “lowercase” regardless of the capitalization of letters.
When I lived in IL for my first 43 years of my life, I always liked bigger vehicles for the room and ride. When I moved to Los Angeles, I realized that larger vehicles were not easy for finding parking and zipping around traffic. So I’ve since began to appreciate a nice smaller car. Although I don’t have one at this time, I have owned several Spark’s over the past 6 years. The first was a 2014 2LT in the “lemonade” yellow color. For the week that I had it, I loved it until someone decided to total it out by hitting me in the driver’s rear as I was stopped in traffic. Then I ended up, by default, with a 2015 powder blue 1LT EV Spark that I really loved. My last one was the 2020 1LT Special Edition in white. Even better than the first two. Many times I wish I would have just kept that instead of getting the Cadillac CT4. But to be honest, there’s a good chance that I will end up with another Spark in the future. Depending on the new yellow color coming out, maybe a loaded up 2LT? But finding them is the challenge, so it would most likely be an ordered unit.
Have a friend that purchased a Chevy Spark and uses it to compute to work every day, he’s had it for a year and has over 55,000 miles on it so far and says its the best small car for the money he’s ever owned.