As GM Authority previously reported, the all-new 2023 Chevy Montana officially launched in Brazil back in February 2023. Since then, sales of the unibody have been strong, so with that in mind, today we’re taking a closer look at how the Montana fared against its competition.
During the month of April 2023, the Montana was the second best-selling vehicle in its segment, slotting between the Fiat Toro and Renault Oroch. During the 2023 calendar year thus far, the Bow Tie brand delivered 7,515 units, quickly closing in on Chevy Montana sales recorded in 2018 and 2019, respectively totaling 13,115 and 12,526 units.
Sales Numbers - Compact Pickups - April 2023 - Brazil
| MODEL | APR 23 / APR 22 | APRIL 23 | APRIL 22 | APRIL 23 SHARE | APRIL 22 SHARE | YTD 23 / YTD 22 | YTD 23 | YTD 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIAT TORO | -25.36% | 3,812 | 5,107 | 47% | 94% | -1.28% | 15,891 | 16,097 |
| CHEVROLET MONTANA | +154,250.00% | 3,087 | 2 | 38% | 0% | +93,837.50% | 7,515 | 8 |
| RENAULT OROCH | +289.90% | 1,158 | 297 | 14% | 5% | +50.91% | 3,800 | 2,518 |
| TOTAL | +49.04% | 8,057 | 5,406 | +46.09% | 27,206 | 18,623 |
As seen in the chart above, the Montana claimed almost 40 percent of its segment during April 2023, which is quite notable when considering its zero percent share in April 2022.
For those who may have never heard of this little pickup, the Montana is sold in markets outside the U.S. In fact, General Motors unveiled the third-generation 2023 Chevy Montana on December 1st, 2022 during a special broadcast on the Chevrolet Brazil YouTube channel. Designed to compete mainly in the South American market, the all-new Montana is actually Chevy’s first compact unibody pickup, as the first two generations were subcompact-sized.
Under the hood lies a custom-calibrated 1.2L turbocharged engine, rated at 133 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque. In regard to transmission options, customers have the choice of either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic transmission. A front-wheel drivetrain is the only layout available.
As for structure, the 2023 Montana rides on an extended variant of the GM GEM platform, and combines a crew cab body configuration with an exterior design inspired by the Chevy Blazer. Production takes place at the GM São Caetano do Sul plant.
Subscribe to GM Authority as we bring you the latest Chevy Montana news, Chevy news, GM business news, and ongoing GM news coverage.
Comments
Mark Reuss once said this new generation was being designed with North America, or more specifically US and Canada, in mind. I guess that went out the window
This truck should be the Mavric’s competitor. GM get a clue!!!!
Would you look at that … shocker! not ! GM really has no idea what American consumers want .. hint it’s in this article … really should bring it over . Instead reintroducing more small cross over suvs. But no.. .
Was starting to warm up to the idea of having a Montana even though not a fan of fwd. My Silverado is 10 years old and my wife doesn’t like to drive it because of size. Being retired we both could use a small pickup. I miss my S10s. Will it come to USA?
Most likely not they could try import the s10 since that’s little bigger . It was being made globally … it’s mini colorado these days . GM only wants people buy suvs, compact suvs or spend 34k plus for colorado . They don’t really care about middle class America, lower class America. They are more interested Chinese market to be honest. Ford has shifted their EVS to America . Even dealing with Elon Musk to get more chargers in America. GM won’t do that.
This truck is smaller than the Maverick. The engine is a 3 cylinder and it is much smaller than the S10.
It also would not be cheap.
Be careful of what you wish for.
This would need work to come here and the number of small trucks Ford, Honda and Hyundai are selling combined are not high is there really money to be made at this level. High volume is needed in this price class.
Before saying they should should do this you need to do the math. There is more to this than just saying do it.
Agreed.
You realize used maverick mark ups are 10k across the board ? They just had 80k order retail order last time the order banks opened up? There such high demand a 3rd shift was created for the maverick . GM couldn’t put a 2.0l turbo in it? Sure they could . Ford has the market on compact trucks so GM probably won’t start now . It would be nice see competition though
Agree, I think it could become a popular commuter vehicle in the US for those who want a cheaper alternative than the Colorado for the Silverado. The Colorado/Canyon should be the alternative but they have become too fancy and expensive. For the Montana to be successful her it needs to offer a low cost WT version.
Here is the catch,
Ford just finally got to 110.000 units last year. Good number but not great on a low cost model that needs volumes like 240.000 units.
Hyundai sold 36.000.
Next how many of these sales came from the Bronco Sport as the sale for it have totally stalled. Since both are built on the same line and model it is easy to draw line where the buyers went from Bronco Sport.
This is where you need to break down the the numbers we do not have. Are Bronco Sports more profitable. Likely since they cost more. So is selling Mavericks to replace them not a good thing? Yes. You must not only worry about the competition but just where the buyers are coming from.
Ford can do the 3rd shift now because they can sell any Sports.
As for the 2.0 in the Chevy. If it is like the others based on this platform it was never intended to have a 4 cylinder. To put one is would be major redesign and the loss of MPG on top of it is it is not likely they would do that.
As for the Compact trucks it is not a major American Segment like most third world markets.
The bottom line is this. Fords in bad shape financially. They lack the funds to build their EV program thatg they are behind on. No the Mach E and Lighting were not part of their future. They were just window dressing for the stock holders. Ford Stock has not moved and even dropped as the Maverick came to market.
Fords Stock Right now is $12.04 a share and that is dangerously low. It will even dip below $10 from time to time. They hold major debts and laid off 8000 people to pay for the bulk of the EV program. More cust are to come. The CEO is on a very hot seat.
Ford PR department has been doing a good job putting a good face on all this but they can only do this for so long.
At the end of the day is how much money will something make and take away from another MFG. Right now Ford is robbing their own market.
Bringing a new model to a market is a major expense on the billions and you need to figure six ways to Sunday how you will make that money back and then make a profit off of it.
Excellent point. Ford’s deal with Tesla to use their chargers is just another admission that they are behind in the EV race. It gave Ford’s stock a brief jump, but it helped Tesla more.
Yes you are correct. Ford may have to cut more deals as time goes on.
One of their engineers admitted the Mach E was a mess. They put much more harness in the car than needed and it has led to issues and added weight. The Lightning battery issues are well known.
Ford is trying to copy GM on an EV platform to under pin their models. It is still about 2 years out at best.
The one thing that is helping is the slow adoption rate of EV models but they do need to get in the game soon.
Ford has done a great glamor job with marketing so everything looks cool but the cold hard truth is trucks like the Raptor and Maverick are not enough to save their hide.
They still have outstanding loans on their plants pre GM bail out. They also still owe on a 7 Billion dollar loan from the energy department that they got after GM and Chrysler got bailed out.
I’m not a Ford fan but I am the first to say I do not want to lose them. America has lost too many automakers already.
GM won’t bring this truck to the US until the market is saturated. The sad thing is, GM should have brought over the Holden Ute years ago.
Lets tell the rest of this story. They were going to bring it here only because Holden was building them. It would be a cool thing to do.
But the hard reality it was more PR than profit. The plan was to bring in 10,000 units a year and they would have been at that time $40-50K pre truck. Options would be limited and they would have priced out right with the G8 it was based on.
I was a previous El Camino owner and lover and I had looked forward to this till I saw the price and I could buy a Canyon Denali for much less.
Don’t forget the El Camino died because of the S10 Sales died as people moved to trucks.
Even the mid size trucks are profit limited as they share little with other models and they cost nearly as much to build as a full size. They are not like the full size with Volume 10 times over.
Should would and could do not pay the bills.
Even GM is doing better than most but it is going to be a tough few years coming up with inflation and supply issues while trying to build ICE and EV models at the same time. They can’t afford to ignore either right now.
With the ever increasing CAFE regs only larger models will have a Turbo 4 and smaller 3 cylinder Turbo engines. Truck and Corvette will be the only V8 and no V6 will be found before long. They have numbers to meet.
Don’t get me wrong I would love to see this truck here with a larger more powerful engine but that is not just as easy to do as say just bring it.
It would be a hit here in the US too if it was built to our standards as well.
We need to remember that to bring it here production would need to move to Mexico.
Import taxes prevent it coming from South America and to keep the price low it would need to go to Mexico.