Chevrolet's 2016 Models: Targeting Excellence Worldwide
For many years, General Motors – or GM – was a quintessentially American corporation because the bulk of its profits came from vehicles sold in North America. There, GM totally dominated the market in the early 1960s. The situation began to change only gradually with the arrival of Japanese competition, and GM was to some extent immune to the globalization of the car business. When it came, the awakening was brutal, and things went steadily downhill until 2008, when the worldwide recession brought GM within a heartbeat of bankruptcy and deprived it of its position as a world leader.
The corporation now operates on a completely overhauled financial basis, and has shaken off some of its old arrogance: some will recall how former CEO Rick Wagoner made headlines of the wrong sort by flying down to Washington in a GM corporate jet to ask the US Congress to save his company from bankruptcy. GM is quite determined to recover its position as a world leader, and to do that, it needs to offer competitive products on every continent.
GM’s spearhead, the Chevrolet Division, sells vehicles in 125 countries and is the world’s fourth-ranked manufacturer. A Chevrolet is sold somewhere in the world every seven seconds, and 60% of its sales take place outside the United States.
However, the company is not about to rest on its laurels: GM recently invited auto journalists to attend a special presentation in Detroit regarding its plans for the future.
A sporty beginning
To get things under way on a sporting note, Chevrolet unveiled the convertible version of its 2016 Camaro. We had already seen the coupe, which has a much more aerodynamic profile than its predecessor, and it comes with some new engines, including a 2.0-litre four that produces 275 hp.
The convertible is mechanically identical, and sports the same shape under its folding top, which can be opened or closed while driving at speeds up to 50 kph. A hard cover closes automatically over the storage compartment as the top folds, to maintain a sleek silhouette.
The remainder of the briefing addressed four main themes: connectivity, electric vehicles (EVs), worldwide design, and new powertrains. A summary follows.
Connectivity: the way of the future
For many would-be purchasers, a vehicle is no longer assessed on the basis of such criteria as performance, safety and comfort. With almost everybody using mobile devices, Internet connectivity for driver and passengers has become a vital element of the purchasing dilemma. With the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, people are accustomed to communicating instantly with the rest of the world, and using their cellphones to find their way around.
Today’s automobiles have to score on two counts: the on-board navigation system, and cellphone compatibility. Thanks to their OnStar system, Chevrolet and the other GM brands now offer 4G LTE communications and can keep you in touch with the rest of the planet through your cellphone connection to the MyLink system.
More than 16 of the 2016 Chevrolet models will be so equipped. A diagnostic system will also be incorporated in a number of Chevrolet models, so that the owner can be briefed monthly by OnStar on the mechanical fitness of his or her vehicle.
The 2016 models will let Apple and Android telephone users sync their devices with the MyLink system in their Chevrolet. Such systems will also become available in Germany and China next year. In the case of China, GM has signed an agreement with a Chinese telecom that can claim over 800 million subscribers!
Electric vehicles: closer to the mainstream
For a number of years, GM’s efforts to market hybrid or electric vehicles have been relatively unsuccessful, and the EV-1 program was terminated in the mid-1990s. It was only when Chevrolet came up with the Volt, a 100%-electric plug-in car with a gasoline-powered engine that GM referred to as a “range extender”, that people began to associate Chevrolet with EVs. The Volt has been one of the more successful symbols of GM’s renewal since 2008.
For 2016, Chevrolet is offering a completely redesigned Volt with a more refined and carefully sculpted shape. Its electric-only range is now 80 km, and total range using the gasoline engine is 675 km. The two electric motors are completely new, and provide the equivalent of 149 hp and 294 foot-pounds of torque. The 1.4-litre engine-generator has been replaced by a new 1.5-litre four that weighs 45 kg less but is mechanically more advanced and technically more sophisticated. The battery pack is 20% more powerful, but 9 kg lighter.
Components from the Volt’s electrical system have been incorporated into the 2016 Malibu Hybrid, but the Malibu is not a plug-in. The two electric motors incorporated into the transmission are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Average fuel consumption of the new Malibu should be about 5.6 l/100 km.
The electric vehicle GM is most proud of is the Bolt EV, a 100%-electric car that lacks the Volt’s gasoline-powered engine-generator, but has an estimated range of 321 km. Its selling price in the US should be around $30,000. Remember that Quebec offers an $8,000 rebate as a purchase incentive. Chevrolet has announced that it will be in production within a couple of years, and will be built in the Orion plant in Michigan. Fifty prototypes have already been made, and testing has begun at the Milford test track in Michigan. More than 1,000 engineers are working on Bolt development.
Design: a worldwide phenomenon
In the past, most Chevrolets were designed in Detroit, but things have changed. Now that its products are for sale worldwide, they are being conceived in ten design centres located in seven countries: Warren, Michigan and North Hollywood, California; Rüsselsheim, Germany; São Paulo, Brazil; Inchon, South Korea; Shanghai, China; Bangalore, India; and Port Melbourne, Australia.
These centres have to work in harmony with one another. One notable fact is the growing number of Asian –including Korean– stylists whose talent commands recognition.
What makes them go: powertrains
A decade ago, GM’s smaller engines were technically inferior to those of the competition. Its big V8s, on the other hand, were winners in their respective categories. In this area as in others, GM has shown renewed vigour in all engine classes by acquiring the means to develop world-class powertrains. More than 8,700 engineers are hard at work in eight development centres in the United States, China, India, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Austria and South Korea – a long way from the GM monolith of the old days.
The effort is already beginning to pay off: in 2016-2017, GM will be bringing 30 new products to market, 17 of them totally new. They included the 1.4-litre turbo for the Cruze, and its six-speed automatic. The engineering centres located in the US, Italy and Germany have developed a new, ultraquiet diesel engine, the Flüsterdiesel or “whispering diesel”, a 1.4-litre four that will be available in the Cruze in 2017.
A new beginning
It seems that General Motors and its sales leader, Chevrolet, have finally understood that its resources have to match its ambitions. To succeed in world markets, GM must not only have the right resources in place, but it must never stop moving forward.
What we journalists took away from the briefing was a distinct impression that the competition is going to have to up its game.