Following the confirmation on the development of a diesel-powered version of the well-selling Chevrolet Cruze sedan for the American market earlier this year, General Motors revealed today that the car will be built at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, with sales to begin in early 2013.
GM spokesman Tom Mock told The Detroit News that the company will invest $5.5 million to upgrade the plant’s body shop and general assembly line. The same factory also produces the gasoline variants of the Cruze, which has proved a big success for GM outselling everything in its segment including the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.
The Detroit-based automaker has not yet provided any information on the diesel-engine Cruze that will be offered in the States.
In Europe, Chevrolet offers the compact sedan with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder diesel that produces 163-horses at 3,800rpm and 360 Nm (265.5 lb-ft) of peak torque at 1,750 rpm, along with a choice of 6-speed manual and automatic transmissions.
With this engine, the Cruze delivers a combined fuel economy on the European cycle (bear in mind, these figures can’t be directly compared to EPA estimates) of 5.2 lt/100km [42mpg US] for the manual model and 6.3lt/100km [37.3mpg US] for the automatic. The manual model also returns 4.4lt/100km (53.5mpg US) on the highway.
Currently, the most fuel efficient Cruze available in the States is the Eco model featuring a standard six-speed manual gearbox with an EPA-rating of 42 mpg (equal to 5.6lt/100km) on the highway.
Story References: Detnews
