GM cancels plans for unibody mid-sized pickup truck
By Andrew C., 27 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
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General Motors had plans for a new unibody mid-sized pickup truck but after figuring out that it wouldn't be much more fuel-efficient than current body-on-frame designs, it has canceled these plans. At the Chicago Auto Show in early 2008, GM revealed the GMC Denali XT concept. The truck was based on the Zeta rear wheel drive platform used for the Pontiac G8 but unlike the star-crossed G8 ST that was never made into a production car, the
planned production truck would have been derived front-wheel drive/all-wheel drive Epsilon II architecture like Honda's Ridgeline. GM vice-chairman Tom Stephens said that the unibody design would not prove to boost the fuel economy much and that would have meant losing the interest of the potential buyers. And GM certainly wants to avoid producing a car that is less profitable. Incidentally, the current four-wheel drive Chevrolet Silverado pickup has an EPA rating of 14/20 mpg while the all-wheel drive Ridgeline only gets 15/20 mpg. There seems to be a trend here. As a mid-sized truck, the unibody would have likely replaced the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon. At the moment, it is unclear how GM will proceed in handling these products from now on. [via autoblog]
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