Chevrolet Wants to Play with the Big Boys in Europe

Chevrolet is preparing for the European launch of a superior six-model range next year, marking its entrance in the mainstream volume segment. Company officials acknowledged that the manufacturer had been involved in the low-end segment, but is now looking to move up.

"If you look at the UK or all of Europe, what you see is in all the volume segments, around 80% of the volume is in normal price, around 10% is premium and 10% is in the heavily discounted area," said Chevrolet Europe president Wayne Brannon in an interview for just-auto at this week's launch of the new Orlando MPV in Spain.

"We have been playing in the 10% discount area and now we are going to play in the 80%. The vast majority of the market price points will reflect what the customer is looking for - we think we are going in the right direction." he added.

Chevrolet's move comes in an effort to return to the sales level of two years ago, although the market will remain "basically flat" next year before beginning a "slow curve" in 2015 to 2016.

"We are not expecting significant industry growth but we are hoping in 2012 we will see a recovery," said Brannon.

Officials at Chevrolet Europe estimated the company would sell 480,000 vehicles this year and added that no other new markets are expected to open up. He continued saying that the company is now able to add shifts back to some plants, a clear indication that recovery continues.