Is small the new big?
One of the interesting side notes to the official rollout of General Motor’s new 2015 Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup is how it’s yet another piece of evidence regarding the “shrinkage” going on in the commercial vehicle space. Engineers are executing this shrinkage to help trucks better cope with the new realities of urban life, namely that cities are getting more crowded and streets more heavily congested.
Indeed, that’s one reason for the rebirth of the Colorado several years ago in Thailand, where far more crowded Asian urban centers demanded more compact work vehicles. This midsize model and its GMC Canyon twin had been discontinued by GM back in 2012 .
“We’ve taken all the attributes of a full-size [pickup] truck and put them not only in a smaller package, but wrapped it in a ‘car-like’ feel as well,” Chris Hilts, GM’s creative design manager for the Colorado, explained to me during a pre-launch event for the new truck in Detroit.
“Yet, it still has all the tough truck attributes every customer expects and it’s sculpted so it doesn’t feel like you’re operating a small truck,” he said. “This is difficult because getting all those expected truck attributes—more interior storage space, more electronic offerings, more room for the driver and passengers—is tight for a full-size pickup and thus even tighter for a midsize model.”
Joyce Mattman, commercial product director for GM’s Fleet & Commercial division, told me that growing traffic congestion in cities coupled with interest in fuel economy is expected to drive demand for the work-truck version of the Colorado.
“Work fleets really have nowhere to go below a half-ton pickup today, yet the trend towards downsizing and lightweighting is gaining speed,” she said. “In the past, the midsize pickup didn’t have all the capability a work fleet needed. That’s why we’re bringing that expanded capability back to this segment.”
According to Mattman, the other dynamic at play is the growing acceptance in the market for smaller displacement engines—something that will be critical for future fuel economy gains within every segment of the trucking business, from light duty on up through Class 8.
“The dynamic we’ve seen is that U.S. truck buyers who used to favor only big engines are growing to accept the V6,” she said. “Certainly, the car buyer is now accepting of V4 engines, and we expect to see that eventual acceptance among truck buyers too.” That includes the 2.8L Duramax diesel GM expects to offer for the Colorado in the 2016 model year, she added.
Sandeep Kar, global director of commercial vehicle research for Frost & Sullivan, pointed out that Class 8 truck engines in the U.S. should shrink anywhere from 2 to 3% by 2018 as OEMs and fleets alike seek ways to improve fuel economy and payload capacity simultaneously for tractor trailers. He did add, however, that new technologies will actually boost the power density of such engines by 6 to 8%.
It’s a trend that will only bear watching as the new year rolls on.
Sean Kilcarr is Fleet Owner’ s senior editor. He can be reached at skilcarr@fleetowner.com
