[Kooper]

I wonder if we could see a Diesel TRAX? GM is on record that they will be focusing more on diesels in North America over the coming period... Could the TRAX be one of those vehicles?

According to Steve Kiefer, GM’s vice president of global powertrain, “The Chevrolet Cruze diesel will be the first of many diesel-powered passenger cars General Motors will offer in the United States.” Kiefer didn’t mention specific models under consideration for diesel variants but hinted that torque will be the more important measure of performance in the coming years.

 

[James]

If they really go through with making the Cruze a diesel, then I can see them expanding into their other smaller segments, but then again they may only want to stick with one mega mainstream model for this

 

[Kooper]

They already have gone through with a Cruze diesel model... The Cruze and trax already share a petrol power train, I would think its just as easy to share a diesel power train as it is a petrol one

 

[James]

Interesting, i guess at this point it's just a matter of them being able to justify doing it

 

[TrainTrax]

I heard that there would be more diesel models generally from Chevy but I'm not sure if the Trax would be very close to the top of the list. DO you think it would have a very high take rate?

 

[Kooper]

well we wont know until they put it on sale

 

[TrainTrax]

They won't put it on sale until they know... So you see that there is a little bit of a catch-22 here. Even success as a diesel in other markets doesn't mean that a diesel Trax would sell well in the NA market.

 

[James]

Yup, that will be the real moment of truth, till then all we can do is hope it will make it.

 

[TrainTrax]

Would you guys be interested in the diesel if it was put on sale in NA? I still think I would just go with the base engine.

 

[James]

I know that i would highly consider it.

 

[chevyfan]

What I have noticed is the use of aluminum going up, now used for the whole construction of vehicles, so who knows, maybe it's something a next generation model can get, combine that with a diesel engine and it will be epic.

 

[James]

Yes, it's quite widespread and this is just to start.

It's just too bad that when it comes to super light weight material like carbon fiber, it's just too expensive to use on vehicles like this.
Would love to see some mainstream cars with carbon fiber shells.

Sadly that won't happen for another 10 years.

 

[TrainTrax]

Yea CF is pretty expensive right now. Aluminum could be possible on the next-gen model. Diesel plus aluminum even would raise the price quite a bit. I think that asking for all this is just too much for an economy car.

 

[J.G]

aluminium will not necessarily raise the price. If you can have significant scale than the cost is mitigated...

 

[chevyfan]

That is true and that being the case it might work well in their favor to start using it in vehicles that are already high volume.. In the Trax it would be great but i'm not sure if it has the volume to justify it.

 

[James]

Looks like it's a great time to invest in companies that car makers get their aluminium from since this is just the start with car makers using it on a large scale.

 

[TrainTrax]

Do you really think that GM is going to make aluminum a component of enough vehicles to bring down the price through volume?

 

[James]

Do you really think that GM is going to make aluminum a component of enough vehicles to bring down the price through volume?

when it comes to components that they can use across a number of vehicles i'm not sure, that's a tough one.

 

[TrainTrax]

It would have to be a process that happens over many years. Start with the higher end vehicles and then move it down through the lineup. If you put it in the low end of the lineup first it would raise the prices too much, but then if you put it in the top end first you don't really get the benefits of lower the price of the aluminum due to a rise in economy of scale.

 

[chevyfan]

when it comes to components that they can use across a number of vehicles i'm not sure, that's a tough one.

They can't.
However they can make a good deal with their supplier on some long contract.