GM All-In on EVs – Is Its Current Lineup Suffering for It?
[July 22, 2020]
GM recently released its 2019 Sustainability Report, and within it, gives greater detail on its electrified future and the models that will comprise it. While many of the models sound promising and desirable, one can’t help but look at GM’s current lineup and wonder if it’s starving resources and development dollars from current programs to fund future ambitions.
Yes, the C8 Corvette has earned numerous accolades from enthusiast outlets, and rightfully so. It’s a remarkable value for the level of engineering and performance the car offers. But aside from the C8, and the fantastic bang-for-the-buck quotient of the Camaro SS, the rest of its lineup is, frankly, a little sad.
Exhibit #1 is the recent announcement that the 2021 Equinox will drop its top 2.0L I-4 turbo engine option, leaving the 1.5L turbo as the sole available powerplant. As recently as just last year, the Equinox was available with three powertrain options: the 1.5L GDI turbo, the 2.0L turbo, and the 1.6L turbodiesel. And then there was one. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the 1.5L turbo, neither is it especially exciting. It’s merely competent.
Looking elsewhere in the Chevrolet lineup, both the Malibu and Impala have been effectively chopped from the lineup, and news just came in the last few weeks that the U.S.-built Sonic subcompact is also getting the axe. At least on the non-pickup side, aside from the Camaro and Corvette, Chevy is headed in the direction of an all-SUV lineup.
Although the midsize Blazer in and of itself isn’t a horrible vehicle, in the shadow of the 2021 Ford Bronco, which by all indications should be a worthy and formidable competitor to the perennially popular Jeep Wrangler, it looks like a tone-deaf mismatch of a revered legacy nameplate on an otherwise unremarkable midsize crossover.
The Chevy Blazer isn’t bad, but compared to the effort Ford put into its 2021 Bronco, it seems GM might not be willing to spend money blazing new trails with its ICE lineup.
To a somewhat lesser extent, the 2021 Trailblazer is also a disappointment. Fifteen years ago, the Trailblazer SS packed LS2 Corvette power in a midsize SUV. I can personally attest it was as much fun in person as its specs promised on paper. The new Trailblazer is a three-cylinder powered replacement for the also unremarkable Trax.
I’m not going to spill too much ink on Buick, other than the fact that if it weren’t for the China market, there’s a good chance it could have ended up in the same place as Oldsmobile and Pontiac in the company’s bankruptcy and reorganization about a decade ago. It is now officially all-SUV, and the arguably once promising and interesting model it had, the Regal TourX, is now discontinued thanks to GM’s spin-off of Opel to France’s PSA.
The Regal TourX was one of Buick’s few vehicles with redeeming qualities, but GM barely put any effort into marketing the car.
I’ve already covered Cadillac’s lukewarm current lineup in past posts. The new Escalade is clean, high-tech, and well executed by all indications, and the turbodiesel option adds interest to the auto journalist community constantly in search of unusual and quirky options and variants. Yet this is the same division that introduced and summarily executed barely a year later one of its most technologically sophisticated and powerful V-8 engines, the 4.2L twin-turbocharged DOHC Blackwing.
Retreat is rarely a winning strategy, and although GM may be planning an aggressive offense in a year or two with its EV lineup, if customers lose interest in its current products, can it generate enough excitement with its new EV models to win them back again? Or will Tesla, Nissan, Volkswagen, and others capture the buying public’s imagination, and more importantly, their checkbooks, in the meantime?
(Images, including main image of Cadillac EV concept, courtesy GM)
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