Lighter, More Efficient Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban Coming in 2013

General Motors announced last week that it will will invest $331 million in its Arlington Assembly Plant to purchase tooling and equipment needed to ready the lines for the production of the future generation SUVs. The new vehicles from Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac will go into production in 2013 as 2014 models.

According to the Inside Line, the reinvented Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, plus their sister models, the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade are expected to be considerably lighter, with smaller, more efficient engines.

The automotive giant promises to do this without compromising the functionality that customers have come to expect from full-sized SUV, so we expect to see new, more efficient turbocharged diesel engines being introduced. It’s great that they will be lighter and will burn less fuel, but torque diesels will be essential in order to keep towing and load bearing capacity the wait it is. Seven or eight-speed gearboxes could also play a part.

This is the first major overhaul of the Arlington operations since 2001. The investment is part of the huge expansion program GM engaged in soon after it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, which also includes plants in Detroit, Flint, Toledo and Bowling Green. A total of $2 billion have been promised this year alone for the upgrading of no less than 17 US facilities.

“This investment will allow us to continue building award-winning full-size SUVs that offer better fuel efficiency than ever before without sacrificing the features and functionality they’ve come to expect,” GM Manufacturing Manager Larry Zahner said Thursday. “We remain committed to providing customers the utility and capability of our world-class full-size SUVs.”