Chevy hopes to get to the heart of auto market with small cars
When Brent Dewar, 48, took over last month as general manager of Chevrolet, his directive was simple and to the point.
Sell 400,000 more vehicles in 2003 than in 2002 to ensure Chevy reaches 3 million total sales, a feat last accomplished in 1979, and to ensure General Motors reaches a 30% market share, up from 28.6% at present.
Considering that the new Chevy general manager just sold his wife on moving from New York to Detroit after a three-year stint as East Coast regional sales manager, selling 400,000 vehicles to strangers should be simple. But, for investment purposes, he’s keeping the apartment in New York.
“The 3 million objective is an attainable goal with the products we have in the pipeline,” Dewar said from Indianapolis, where Chevy unveiled the SSR roadster/pickup pace vehicle for this year’s Indy 500 race.
The reason Chevy hasn’t reached 3 million in so long, Dewar said, is that “the heart of the market is the $15,000-to-$20,000 price range, the highest volume of buyers but our lowest penetration of sales.”
As part of Chevy’s longer-term effort to revive the brand, next spring it will bring out a line of Aveo subcompacts from its operations with Daewoo in South Korea, a compact sport utility called the Equinox, built off the Saturn VUE platform, as an ’05 and a replacement for the compact Cavalier for ’05 that has yet to be named.
“We were missing a small sport ute and a small car in the low- or entry-level end of the market. With Equinox, we’ll have the sport ute; with Aveo, we’ll have an entry-level car [starting at about $10,000]; and with the Cavalier replacement, we’ll have a premium-level small car. Cavalier tried to cover both entry and premium levels with one car, and it didn’t work,” Dewar said.
Dewar said Aveo, Equinox and the Cavalier replacement, along with a new mid-size ’04 Colorado pickup and the next-generation ’04 Malibu, will add more than 400,000 sales combined.
Colorado replaces the compact S-10, and the Malibu line will get a slightly larger Malibu Maxx hatchback early next year.
Though he’s still familiarizing himself with his new job, we asked Dewar to comment on other topics:
Honda has Insight and Civic gas-electric hybrids, and Toyota has the compact Prius hybrid, with a Camry-sized Prius coming this fall. Where’s Chevy?
“Like [GM Vice Chairman] Bob Lutz says, you can’t legislate against obesity simply by designing smaller suits. Hybrids account for small numbers, and our strategy is to start with trucks [Silverado in ‘04], then the Saturn VUE [‘05] and then Chevy [Equinox in ‘06, Malibu in ‘07].”
Are SSR derivatives in the works?
“We want to focus on the excitement of launching the SSR first. I’d be remiss, however, if I didn’t say that derivatives are something we’re looking at.”
Where does the SS, the four-door concept built off the Corvette platform from the auto show circuit, stand?
“It’s still a work in progress.”
What about a return of the Camaro?
“Ford has the Mustang and should enjoy it while it’s got it, because our plan is not to be out of that segment for a long time,” he said.
Any plans for a return to full-size sedans?
“We’re working on the next-generation Impala now,” he said.
