New Cruze to be delayed?

Staff report

lordstown

Media reports coming from Canada are stating the next-generation of the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze will be delayed by a year.

In response to those reports, General Motors released this statement:

“Cruze remains Chevrolet’s best-selling nameplate globally and a big reason for the brand’s global growth. The next-generation Cruze will ensure that we maintain momentum in the global marketplace.

“However, we do not discuss details regarding future products or their timing. Nor do we respond to speculation about our product programs.”

The news service Reuters stated that the Canadian Auto Workers union leaders at a supplier plant in Stratford, Ontario, already have announced the delay to members.

“It was disappointing to hear that the Chevy Cruze program has been pushed back a year and will not start until 2015,” CAW Local 4451 Chairwoman Karen Fleming said in a newsletter issued in April, according to the Reuters story. This means the first of the next generation Cruze would not occur until the 2016 model year.

The union represents hourly workers at a Cooper Standard Automotive plant that makes rubber seals and trim parts.

Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1714 in Lordstown, stated there was no reason for the company to tip its hand about when the next- generation Cruze would be released.

“It would only give our competitors an advantage,” he said. “I think the company is in a position to make sure that everything is right with the next generation.”

Johnson did add that after this year, the Cruze will be the oldest model without a redesign in the GM lineup.

“The company will release the next Cruze when it’s ready,” he said.

The Reuters report states the delay is due to engineering changes and a desire to squeeze more sales from the small car before it is redesigned, according to people familiar with the U.S. automaker’s plans.

Sales of the Cruze set a record in June with 32,871 sold in the month in the United States, an increase of 73 percent compared with the previous year. Thus far in 2013 there have been 133,689 Cruzes sold domestically through June, which is nearly 20,000 more than the 113,884 sold through the end of June 2012.

In August 2012, GM announced a $200 million investment in the Lordstown plant. The next generation of the Cruze was supposed to debut in the 2015 model year, with the current generation continuing through the 2014 model.

The 2015 next-generation Cruze would have been built at the Lordstown plant starting in early 2014 and would have appeared on car lots in either the summer or fall of that year.

Arvin Jones, GM’s manufacturing manager, said at the time the next-generation Cruze was announced that the new model will offer new exterior and interior styling, improved fuel economy and more storage space.

The company was short on specifics, however, deferring most questions to a later date. GM also stated at that time production timing of the next-generation Cruze and model variations will be announced later.