Chevrolet launches Aussie-born Orlando

Despite Holden's pivotal role in developing the Orlando, it doesn't make a strong business case in Australia.
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

But the word missing in the sentence is Australia.

Holden spokesperson Emily Perry this week confirmed that though the company played a pivotal role in developing the Orlando - which is based on the Cruze platform - it doesn't make a strong business case in Australia.

The five-door, front drive crossover wagon was shown this week in Italy - prior to its March launch - as the Chevrolet Orlando.

It is promoted as having "the driving dynamics of a passenger car, the look of an SUV and the versatility and cargo space of a minivan".

Chevrolet is targeting European buyers who may want to downsize from a seven-seat large minivan to a medium minivan that offers five seats for adults and two additional seats for children in a third row.

The Korean-built van will not be available in the US.

The Orlando is to be "aggressively priced" against rivals such as the Ford Grand C-Max or Opel/Vauxhall Zafira. Chevrolet says the Orlando will cost 15 per cent less than competitors fitted with the same standard equipment.

Chevrolet plans to sell about 60,000 Orlandos in its first full year of sales in Europe.

Chevrolet Europe managing director Wayne Brannon says the Orlando will play a key role in the brand's plans to boost its European presence by 2016 to cover two thirds of the market segments, up from a quarter now.

Chevrolet's upcoming European launches dovetail with Australia.

It gets the revamped Captiva SUV in March, a new Aveo (Barina here) subcompact in the second quarter followed by a five-door Cruze hatchback in the third quarter.

Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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