During the recent celebration of its first 20 years of operations in South Korea, General Motors revealed that it will build two next-generation global models in the Asian country.
GM Changwon plant
Executives in charge of the automaker’s business in South Korea explained the progress of the recent massive investment in the GM Changwon and GM Bupyeong plants, where the company says it will build “two next-generation global models.” Both complexes received a joint investment of 1,100,000,000,000 KRW – about $766 million USD at the current exchange rate – to manufacture new crossovers starting next year.
Roberto Rampel, President and CEO GM Korea, visited Bupyeong plant on June
“I am grateful for the dedication and hard work that all of our GM employees have made to manufacture and supply competitive GM global models to the world,” said Senior Vice President and President of GM International, Shilpan Amin, in a statement. “The success of the next-generation global new car is of paramount importance for the sustainable growth of GM’s operations in Korea,” he added.
This is the third time this year that GM has confirmed it will build “next-generation global models” in South Korea, but without disclosing any specific information about those vehicles. It was first pronounced in March when the automaker announced the transformation of the Changwon plant, and then in June by revealing that it will also build next-generation global products at the Bupyeong plant – alongside the current Chevy Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX.
All-new Chevy Trax RS
In fact, it is unclear whether these are really two separate models or a single project involving more than one nameplate, as GM Korea often refers to sister vehicles as one model line. For example, it talks about the Trailblazer and Encore GX as a single model using the term ‘Trailblazer’ and did the same with the Chevy Trax and Buick Encore, which it referred to simply as ‘Trax’.
All-new Buick Envista GS
Although not yet officially announced, one of the next “two global models” that GM will build in South Korea is the all-new 2024 Chevy Trax – which would be the first to be produced at the revamped Changwon complex. Another model could be the Buick Envista, which is closely related to the new Trax/Seeker and under consideration for North America, duplicating the Trax/Encore and Trailblazer/Encore GX formula.
Additionally, should GM Korea also treat the new Trax/Envista as one model, there is the possibility that the mysterious Chevy compact crossover recently spotted in Detroit is another of the models the company plans to build in South Korea.
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Comments
” to manufacture new crossovers starting next year.”
The year is 2030. Setting is a car (sorry, SUV) dealership somewhere in the USA. Couple walks in, greeted by salesperson. Couple: Hi, I’d like to take a look at your cars.
SP: Welcome. Sorry, we don’t have cars. Tell me more about what you are looking for.
Couple: We want something with comfort, safety and not too big. We’d like a car to replace our current Malibu.
SP: Well I don’t have a car, but I do have rows of SUV’s and CUV’s.
Couple: No cars? Why?
SP: Nobody would buy them. Let me show you one of the 27 different SUV/CUV’s I have.
Couple: I’m not really interested in those. What else do you have?
SP: Oh, I have 7 different crossovers. This one is our smallest. Here’s the next one, it’s 2 inches bigger than the first one. Now here I have the next one. This one is all new and it’s about the same size as the other one. The next one is 1 inch bigger than the second one and the same size as the third one.
Couple: They all look the same.
SP: Well let me show you one of the 15 medium sized CUV’s. Or how about one of our 5 large SUV’s?
Couple: Hmm. We can look, but these don’t seem to be what we want. What about colors?
SP: Oh, we have a fantastic selection of gray, with a total of 4 shades of gray, 2 shades of silver.
Couple: Is that the only colors?
SP: Oh, no. We also offer black, dark blue, red and white. If you wish to save money, I’d recommend the white.
Couple: Why?
SP: All the colors cost extra.
Couple: I see. Thanks for your time
Couple walks away and salesperson is left scratching their head wondering why they left.
Hahahaha! I like your comment!
Thanks Mathieu. It’s been very slow at work and I obviously have too much time on my hands. I was just having some fun. Sometimes on here we all (yes, me included) get too serious and I like to mix some funny with my sarcasm with my complaining. lol.
“the mysterious Chevy compact crossover recently spotted in Detroit” is the new GMC Granite