Things are not as they would seem at first glance, as the new Cruze was actually designed by GM’s Holden division at the Port Melbourne studio in Australia. So while it looks European in shape and proportion, the Cruze has Australian blood racing through its veins.
“In designing the new five-door hatch we wanted to retain the sporty ‘Cruze’ proportions and bring the same Holden appearance to the hatch that we developed for the new locally-built Series II Cruze sedan,” said Holden Design Director, Tony Stolfo.
These first images of the hatchback with the Australian brand’s lion logo show that very little in the way of changes, but the black and white photos have a distinctive touch of menace to them.
“The Holden design team works on a range of global design projects from small hatchbacks like the new Cruze to large wheel drive performance vehicles and also a number of exciting vehicles yet to be revealed,” Mr Stolfo added.
Just like its Cruze Sedan Series II cousin, the Holden version of the car will be manufactured locally at the Elizabeth plant with series production set to start in the second half of the year.
No announcements were made regarding the engine range, but we can expect to se the same petrol and diesel burners as the sedan. This means that the car will come with two new engines, a 2.0-liter diesel and a 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline unit, while the naturally-aspirated 1.8-liter petrol being carries over with some minor revisions from the Series I.
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