The 5000th refurbished Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck in the U. S. The U. S. Navy exited a new compromised rendezvous on the outskirts of Melbourne, after leaving the former home of Holden Special Vehicles in August 2022.
This move comes after Ram Trucks Australia tripled its capacity and took over the meetings domain used in the past through Chevrolet at the Walkinshaw Automotive Group plant.
The two rival brands of American pickup trucks were first assembled under the same roof, but on separate lines, and with separate engineers and production workers.
Under the new provisions, Ram and Chevrolet have the opportunity to further ramp up production, before Ford’s local F-150 program begins in mid-2023, and before the Toyota Tundra arrives in late 2023 or early 2024.
Despite Chevrolet’s milestone (5000 cars in about 3 years), archrival Ram Trucks Australia is on track to produce its 20,000th vehicle by the end of this year, following a full-scale launch in 2018.
Today, Ram Trucks Australia outpaces Chevrolet sales by more than two to one. So far this year, Ram’s total of 4810 cars reported sold is more than 50% higher than the same era last year. Sales of Chevrolet (1971) increased up to 14. 5% during the same era.
Since the beginning of the year, Ram Trucks Australia has grown to identify a dominant share of 70% of the local U. S. pickup truck market. U. S.
Drive asked General Motors Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), Chevrolet’s dealer in Australia, why it has such conservative estimates for Silverado given Ram’s runaway success. We will update this story with GMSV’s response.
In a press release, GMSV said the new compromised overhaul facility “will allow for greater flexibility and capacity, with a significant increase in the number of Silverados coming off the line. “
An updated edition of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, with minor styling tweaks and a larger infotainment screen, is now on sale in the U. S. It will be available in Australia in the middle of next year. the ZR2 edition focused on off-road.
The 4 U. S. trucks (Ram, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota) come factory-backed and imported left-hand drive before being remanufactured with over 500 designed parts.
The engineering cost of the right-hand drive variant, refurbished to factory quality and protection criteria, is estimated at more than $10 million before a single component is manufactured and before a single van leaves the local assembly line.
The Big 4 U. S. Truck Brands The U. S. government has still eliminated small independent “shipbreaking shops” that lack the engineering capacity and monetary resources to convert right-hand drive cars to factory standards.
American pickups are so popular in Australia that independent crash testing authority ANCAP is considering adding the cars into long-term assessments.
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National Automotive Editor
Joshua Dowling has been an automotive journalist for over 20 years, spending most of his time working for the Sydney Morning Herald (as automotive editor and an early member of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice/Drive in 2018 and a World Car of the Year has been sentenced for more than 10 years.