CHEVY PLANS NEW COLORADO PICKUP, MUM ON U.S. PLANS

By Rick Kranz, Automotive News - The Chevrolet Colorado has been given a new life. But whether the redesigned pickup will be sold in the United States has not been determined, a Chevrolet spokesman says.

"We're looking at a couple of options," said Mike Albano, the Chevrolet spokesman.

Some web sites today reported the new Colorado will be sold in the United States.

Bangkok debut

The redesigned Colorado was engineered for markets outside North America. It will debut March 25 at the Bangkok International Motor Show in Thailand. Sales will begin in Thailand late this year.

"We do not have any U.S. production plans to announce," Albano said when asked if the redesigned Colorado would be sold in North America.

"We have the Colorado that is on sale now, and we will continue selling it. We have no plans on walking away from that segment at the moment. What that means in terms of future product we can't say at this point," he said.

The current generation Colorado and a sister vehicle, the GMC Canyon, are assembled in Shreveport, La. The plant is expected to be idled by June 2012.

A mid-sized truck

General Motors Co. said the redesigned Colorado will be a mid-sized truck. The current Colorado is considered a compact pickup. A photograph released by GM shows a small portion of the four-door pickup. GM did not say whether a redesigned Canyon pickup was planned.

Compact and mid-sized pickups combined accounted for 16.5 percent of the total U.S. pickup market in 2010, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Last year automakers sold 1,609,933 pickups in the United States, of which 265,278 were compact and mid-sized pickups.

The segment leader last year was the Toyota Tacoma with sales of 106,198 followed by the Ford Ranger with sales of 55,364. The Colorado was No. 4 with 24,642 sales. The Canyon was No. 7 with 7,922 sales.

GM is trying to turn Chevrolet into a global brand.

Global competition

"Trucks play a key role in most Southeast Asian markets," Susan Docherty, GM's vice president of international operational sales, marketing and aftersales, said in a statement. "Nowhere is this more evident than in Thailand, where trucks like the Colorado are ingrained in the local lifestyle," she said. "Thailand was a natural place to give the public a first glimpse of our all new Colorado."

The new Colorado will compete with Ford's new global pickup, the Ranger. Ford will launch Ranger sales outside of North America later this year.

The new Ranger is nearly the size of the F-150 and is separate from the compact Ranger pickup that is sold in North America. The compact Ranger pickup is expected to be discontinued later this year.