The company says it doesn’t want to be late to the party with an off-road-focused body-on-frame SUV.
Emissions and corporate average fuel economy reasons have also been considered.
GM doesn’t rule out an electric off-roader, possibly sold under the Hummer sub-brand.
When Ford announced it would launch the Bronco to compete with the Jeep Wrangler, many looked at General Motors expecting to see the addition of an off-road focussed body-on-frame SUV to compete with these two models.
Now more than two years later, this still hasn’t happened and GM says not to get our hopes up, at least not for a gasoline-powered model.
Indeed, the automaker’s president Mark Reuss, said that a gasoline-powered body-on-frame SUV is not in the plans.
This is because GM doesn’t want to be late to the party in this market segment where both the Wrangler and the Bronco enjoy continued popularity.
Furthermore, selling a body-on-frame SUV designed for off-road capabilities could hurt the company’s corporate average fuel economy, as the Bronco has done for Ford.
With the move toward electrification, General Motors is reluctant to add new fuel-hungry models to its lineup.
This doesn’t mean that GM will never produce a body-on-frame off-roader, however.
Indeed, Reuss didn’t rule out the possibility of an electric model that could rival the Bronco and Wrangler, possibly sold under the Hummer sub-brand.
This is even more likely since rumours say a smaller Hummer EV is coming to supplement the full-size models, which are significantly larger and more expensive than the current competitors from Ford and Jeep.
In addition, General Motors has said many times before that its new Ultium platform can be easily adapted to different types of electric vehicles, which allows it to multiply its product offering faster than before.
Source: The Drive
