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IL Insider: 2011 Chevrolet Cruze To Be Built at GM's Lordstown Facility
LORDSTOWN, Ohio — General Motors will detail plans to built its 2011 Chevrolet Cruze at its Lordstown, Ohio, facility next Thursday. The announcement will include the release of the first official photos of the Cruze, which will be unveiled at the upcoming 2008 Paris Auto Show, the automaker said on Friday.
While GM did not specify in its Friday announcement that the Cruze will be built at Lordstown, industry sources confirmed for Inside Line that the small car will be built there for global consumption. The Cruze will be the "global nameplate" for the new small car, which will go on sale in Europe in spring 2009, sources said.
GM has been slowly ramping up the buzz about the Cruze. On August 12, Beth Lowery, GM's vice president of environment, energy and safety policy, told the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, that the Cruze will get better gas mileage than the vehicle it replaces — the current Chevrolet Cobalt. "The Chevy Cruze will get an additional nine miles per gallon in fuel economy when it debuts in 2010 [versus the Cobalt]," Lowery said.
The EPA says the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt with the 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine linked to an automatic four-speed transmission returns 24 miles per gallon in city driving and 33 mpg on the highway. The 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt XFE with the 2.2-liter four-cylinder and five-speed manual transmission returns 25 mpg in city driving and 37 mpg on the highway. Thus, the most fuel-efficient version of the new Cruze is likely to return highway mileage somewhere around the mid-40-mpg range.
The Cruze will be the first vehicle to use GM's revamped Delta 2 platform, an architecture that will be used on all GM small cars around the globe, including replacements for the Chevrolet HHR and the Opel Zafira and its siblings.
In Paris, GM will unveil a five-passenger sedan that is roughly the same size as the current Cobalt sedan.
What this means to you: The Chevrolet Cruze is about to take a major step toward reality. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
While GM did not specify in its Friday announcement that the Cruze will be built at Lordstown, industry sources confirmed for Inside Line that the small car will be built there for global consumption. The Cruze will be the "global nameplate" for the new small car, which will go on sale in Europe in spring 2009, sources said.
GM has been slowly ramping up the buzz about the Cruze. On August 12, Beth Lowery, GM's vice president of environment, energy and safety policy, told the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, that the Cruze will get better gas mileage than the vehicle it replaces — the current Chevrolet Cobalt. "The Chevy Cruze will get an additional nine miles per gallon in fuel economy when it debuts in 2010 [versus the Cobalt]," Lowery said.
The EPA says the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt with the 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine linked to an automatic four-speed transmission returns 24 miles per gallon in city driving and 33 mpg on the highway. The 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt XFE with the 2.2-liter four-cylinder and five-speed manual transmission returns 25 mpg in city driving and 37 mpg on the highway. Thus, the most fuel-efficient version of the new Cruze is likely to return highway mileage somewhere around the mid-40-mpg range.
The Cruze will be the first vehicle to use GM's revamped Delta 2 platform, an architecture that will be used on all GM small cars around the globe, including replacements for the Chevrolet HHR and the Opel Zafira and its siblings.
In Paris, GM will unveil a five-passenger sedan that is roughly the same size as the current Cobalt sedan.
What this means to you: The Chevrolet Cruze is about to take a major step toward reality. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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