After releasing the final teaser for the next-gen Chevy Montana last week, General Motors has just confirmed the powertrain of Chevrolet‘s first unibody pickup in Brazil.
GM’s Brazilian subsidiary announced that the next-generation Chevy Montana will be powered by a turbocharged 1.2L three-cylinder engine, which will come standard on all variants of the model – at least in the Brazilian market. As expected, the next Montana will use the engine from the more-equipped versions of the Chevy Tracker and will be built on the GEM platform at the GM São Caetano do Sul plant in Brazil – where the Tracker is also manufactured.
Despite using the same powertrain as the Tracker, the automaker claims that the next-generation Chevy Montana’s engine, an international market variant of the turbo 1.2L I3 LIH engine offered in the U.S.-market Chevy Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX, adopts a unique calibration for the pickup that will optimize performance under different conditions of use of the vehicle. In fact, GM projects that the new Montana will offer the best acceleration-to-fuel economy ratio in the segment, with the lowest fuel consumption among small pickups equipped with an automatic transmission.
“A specific engine and transmission calibration was developed for the New Montana considering the vehicle’s mission, for the optimization of performance, whether when it is empty or loaded,” said Project Chief Engineer at GM South America, Eduardo Domeniquelli, in an official statement.
While specifications for the upcoming Chevy Montana’s turbocharged 1.2L engine have not been revealed, we do know that the block will be mated to one of two six-speed transmissions, an automatic and a manual, in base trim levels. Additionally, this three-cylinder engine has a base output of 133 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque in the Chevy Tracker.
The next-generation Chevy Montana will make its world debut on December 1st during a special launch event that will be broadcast on Chevrolet Brazil’s official YouTube channel. Its pre-sale period will start immediately following the reveal, before the vehicle begins to arrive at dealerships in early 2023. Notably, GM revealed that the upcoming Montana was developed in partnership between the technical centers of South America, North America and Asia.
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Comments
Bring it to the US with the new GM 1.5 L engine with a compatible transmission and it will be a hit.
Gm would never put an ICE engine that big in a vehicle that size anymore, sales be damned.
That’s undoubtedly the ugliest GM vehicle I’ve ever seen.
GM here is your Maverick fighter. Get your heads out of your asses and bring this to the US with a decent engine (at least a 1.4L Turbo from the Cruze) and a hybrid deal that gets at least 40mpg! People love these little SUVs with big trunks.
While everyone gets giddy over this segment the Maverick, Santa Cruze and Ridgeline to this point have not sold even 100k units combined.
Stop believing the media hype and read the real numbers.
If this segment takes off I expect it may come but right now there is little money in that low of sales.
Besides you will only get the 3 cylinder and most will be unhappy with that and it will cost about what a Colorado LT cost.
CR8 these type of trucks or mini trucks are sold in the range of $14 to $16K USD, as there are not that many variants or expensive options (auto / manual, aluminum wheels, exterior trim like fog lamps and a few others) and the engines that you find are either 3 cylinder turbo like the upcoming Montana or a NA 1.6 of older generations like the Ram700 or the Renault Oroch.
The base Colorado (this is all based in the respective websites of each brand), as cheap as you can build it, is $30,005 USD, which is twice as much.
Yes, the fact that we are sure it does not meet the safety standards required by the DOT, can allow for the price. But if any of these vehicles is designed with the US Market in mind, that would become maybe a 30% price increase, but not by 100%.