10:18 am, December 6, 2013
GENERAL Motors axeing the Chevrolet name came as a surprise this week.
Not because the American brand is set to disappear, but more because of the timing of the announcement.
On Wednesday night, I waved off Leon Poultney – part of the Blackball Media team – who was on his way to the Continent to hear a big announcement from Ford.
The Blue Oval has been feeling quite proud of itself of late because, after a wait for 50 years, it’ll finally be bringing the Mustang to the UK. And you can understand why Uncle Henry Ford is getting a little excited – the fact that the Mustang is becoming a bit of a global Ford product is quite a big thing.
But, in a bizarre turn of events, just hours before the covers were removed from the new Mustang and other American-styled cars coming to Europe, long-time rival General Motors announced its iconic American nameplate, Chevrolet, would be axed from this continent.
In a move that surely was timed to rain on Ford’s parade, GM did its best to get journalists reporting upon their news instead of Ford’s. The story was thinly disguised with the headline: ‘GM strengthens its European brand strategy’, and contained many references to ‘bolstering’ and ‘reducing complexity for UK buyers’.
What it means to Chevrolet’s UK dealer network is far from clear though. As of today, every dealer has been told the news and a plan for the future is currently being worked on at Chevy’s UK headquarters. It’s likely the dealers which operate as Vauxhall-Chevrolet outlets (around 70 per cent of the network) will just lose the Chevy part of their business, while the future of the solus dealerships is at this stage uncertain.
I can’t say I’m surprised at General Motors deleting the Chevrolet brand from Europe. The Daewoo rebrand to Chevrolet in 2005 was messy and ill-thought-out, and few customers ever understood the differences between the Chevy Trax and Volt over their Vauxhall Mokka and Ampera brothers, and, it’s a harsh thing to say, but most people won’t even know of Chevy’s passing in 2015.
It leads me to ask a wider question here. Can General Motors ever make a go of an American brand in Europe? And moreover, can American brands ever be successful here? Ford may have the answer…
