New GM Will Still Sell SUVs, Just Smaller Ones

Looking forward the New General Motors (GMGMQ), the New York Times has this to say:

Despite its financial troubles, G.M. has had some successful vehicle introductions this year, including a new version of its Equinox sport utility vehicle and the comeback of its iconic Camaro muscle car.

The new Camaro is cool, but it’s really more of a niche ride (especially with a V8 engine that makes it more of a true throwback muscle car). However, it does keep high-performance on the table for the New General.

The Equinox says more about the New GM’s future: It’s exactly the kind of vehicle GM needs to build and sell a lot of. But it’s also a midsize SUV, and even putting the battered SUV on a diet won’t convince critics that GM is moving away from its old ways. But the fact remains: Unless GM can, in its new incarnation, do at least some of what it has done well—sell a certain number of roomy, trucklike vehicles—it will never be able to become the engine of green transportation that it could be.

The Equinox straddles a line between being an SUV and being crossover. The latter is a new category of bulked-up station wagons that aren’t constructed in truck frames. They’re more like cars, although they’ll never rack up the MPGs like a hybrid. In many parts of the country, vehicles such as the Equinox are the bare-minimum that a family of four with pets and coolers and beach chairs can get by on. Try to squeeze them into a sedan or a hatchback and they’re just going to buy somebody else’s midsize SUV. GM needs to stay in this game, and for the time being, it is.