The Australian designed and manufactured Holden Cruze.
The first pictures of the all-new Holden Cruze hatchback, which goes into production at Holden’s Vehicle Operations in Australia, have been released.
A hatchback version of the Holden Cruze was created by Holden’s design studio and will be sold as the Holden Cruze in Australia and New Zealand and as a Chevrolet Cruze in all other countries. It has sweeping coupe like roofline with short overhangs. It was first shown as a concept car at the Paris Motor Show.
Holden’s Design Director, Tony Stolfo, said that the new Holden Cruze hatch highlighted the depth of design skills found in the Holden Design team.
He also mentioned that the Holden design team works on a number of global design projects from small hatchbacks like the new Holden Cruze to large wheel drive performance vehicles. The Cruze sedan is already popular in both Australia and New Zealand so he felt it was rewarding to work on a global project that would also be adaptable to the Australian and New Zealand conditions.
He went on to say that in designing the new five-door hatch, the team wanted to retain the sporty Cruze proportions and bring the same Holden appearance to the hatch that was developed for the new Australian built Series II Cruze sedan.
The Holden Design Studio in Australia is proving to be an important part of the General Motors global design network and it is one of only three Gerenal Motors facilities in the world with the capability to design and build prototype concept vehicles for exhibitions and international auto shows.
The new Cruze hatch will join the sedan, which is already the best-selling small sedan in Australia and should be in Holden showrooms towards the end of 2011.
The new Australian built Holden Series II Cruze sedan line-up has been engineered for the Australian and New Zealand market and conditions and boasts the new engines including the new efficient and impressive 1.4 iTi petrol engine. The most fuel-efficient vehicle manufactured in Australia is the 2.0 litre turbo diesel engine with a manual transmission.
7/7/2011