General Motors plans to once again engage in badge engineering, the time-tested practice of selling one vehicle in many markets with several different badges. According to European patent filings discovered by
L’Automobile Magazine,
Chevrolet is planning a small crossover that appears to be based on the
2013 Buick Encore.
Of course, the Buick Encore already has been badge-engineered once before for
Europe. The compact crossover, which bowed here at the
Detroit auto show, also will be sold overseas as the Opel (and Vauxhall) Mokka (pictured). Rebranding the Encore / Mokka crossover as a
Chevrolet could help GM sell the car in other markets like Europe,
South America (where it could compete against the similar-sized
Ford EcoSport), China, or potentially even the U.S.
It’s unclear whether a Chevrolet version of the Buick Encore would be successful here. The compact crossover is 9.6 inches shorter than the 2013 Ford Escape, a vehicle that would be the logical competition for a smaller Chevrolet crossover. Given healthy sales of the larger Equinox and Traverse here, it also seems unlikely that Chevrolet would want to further subdivide its crossover sales in this market by adding a third model.
Thanks to: Motor Trend
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