The Covenant Car Company, Inc. (TCCCI) is hitting the reset button on the Chevrolet brand in the country by wiping out about half of its line-up in a lead up to the Tracker’s official Philippine launch next week.
Spotted by reader Myk Belmonte, the revamped Chevrolet website sees the Colorado, Malibu, Sail, Tahoe, Trailblazer, and Trax all culled from their official product offerings (the few remaining stocks of the Colorado, Trailblazer, and Trax have been lumped into the section, Legacy Chevrolet Models) . That leaves Chevrolet with just five models out of eleven nameplates—Camaro, Corvette, Spark, Suburban, and the just-launched Tracker. Of these nameplates, only the Spark and Tracker are truly considered volume or mass market models.
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time for Chevrolet. The bowtie brand pulled out of the Thailand market altogether at the end of 2020, selling their assembly plant to China’s Great Wall Motors. With no production hub in ASEAN for the Trailblazer mid-sized PPV and the Colorado pickup truck, it was only a matter of time until Chevrolet Philippines would run out of units to sell. It took a while, but it has finally happened seven months into 2021.
Not so surprising too was Chevrolet’s move to discontinue the Trax given the Tracker does complete in the same segment, price-wise despite TCCCI’s insistence that the target demographics are different. Ditto the Korea-sourced Malibu which is competing in a shrinking executive sedan segment.
It seems Chevrolet is running on all cylinders as far as its re-branding is concerned. With the launch of the Tracker, the American carmaker will tap General Motors’ joint-venture plant in China with SAIC. It makes a whole lot of sense given that SAIC also owns MG, the other brand that TCCCI carries.
Niche models such as performance or muscle cars and large SUVs, meanwhile, will be sourced from North America.
Chevrolet Philippines says that two more models will join the Tracker by the end of 2021. Those are likely the Corvette and the all-new Suburban/Tahoe—models which they previously announced late last year. However, with their volume models seriously thinned out, they’ll likely have to add the likes of the 7-seater Blazer to battle the Geely Okavango and Chery Tiggo 8, and the Trailblazer which is a small SUV that can go against the Ford Territory to keep their dealers happy. Eventually, they’ll probably bring in the Onix and Orlando as well.
Yah they shod bring in the china 5 seater trailblazer to bter compete. C...d jmc trtory sales well here in ph
ReplyDeletemaybe Chevy can set up manufacturing here, hehehe :D. Expensive tho....
ReplyDeleteSad news.
ReplyDeleteChevrolet should just give up in the Philippines. Even scotty kilmer calls chevy dealership as junkyards
ReplyDeleteTCCCI won't give up Chevrolet that easily as they're aware they can still sell Chevrolet vehicles made in China at affordable prices.
Deleteit is not surprising aforementioned nameplates are to be axed. the better bets for survival are the b-segment car (Onyx), 7 Seater SUV or TB replacement and 5/7 Seater SUV and of course subcompact Tracker.
ReplyDelete