Chevrolet Colorado - Coming Next Month

GM Thailand announced that its Rayong plant in Thailand is getting ready to start producing the new generation Colorado pickup, which will roll-off the production line sometime next month. Not only is the Colorado built in GM Thailand's Rayong plant, but the 4-cylinder Duramax diesel engine is also built in the same plant. The Duramax engines will come in both 2.5-liter and 2.8-liter capacity, featuring overhead cams, turbocharging and durable aluminum cylinder heads.

Body in white shells of the pre-production Colorado models.

In developing the vehicle, the Colorado programme's chief engineer Roberto Rempel and his team lived in Thailand to fully understanding the operating conditions and usage patterns of Thai truck users, the largest truck buyers outside of USA.

“The hard work for this program has been done, and we are incredibly pleased with the results,” Rempel said. “This is a world-class truck that will appeal to buyers not just in the heavily concentrated truck markets of Southeast Asia, but around the world.

“We know customers of this type of vehicle want a workhorse and a daily-use vehicle all in one, so our product has to deliver. We have benchmarked the toughest, most flexible vehicles around the world. When you combine that approach with our detailed consideration of global expectations, we are confident the new Colorado will be a winner.”

To prepare GM's existing Rayong facility for the big task ahead, GM invested US$300 million in plant upgrades, including retooling of the entire vehicle assembly line. A new robotic automated large press line was also added while an existing press line had its automation upgraded. The new press line can produce seven panels per minute or 2.3 million panels per year. Laser scanning technology has also been adopted to ensure precise build quality.

The body shop also had all new tooling and robotic automated lines have been added, while the paint shop received a major upgrade to existing tooling and automated spray robot’s. The plant’s general assembly area has been completely changed to accommodate a new lean material delivery system, a new Dynamic Vehicle Tester, new tooling and checking equipment and a new vehicle test track, to ensure build quality to world class standards.

This week, the plant completed final build checks on pre-production Colorado models, with series production to commence soon.

There are currently 3400 employee’s onsite at GM’s Rayong facility. The facility at full capacity can produce up to 180,000 vehicles per year. Also produced in the same Rayong plant is the Chevrolet Cruze and Captiva SUV.

Also launching next month in Thailand is the new Ford Ranger. The truck market has been rather dull this year. The two new entrants should be heat things up a bit. The Isuzu D-Max, the second best selling truck in Thailand is also rumoured to be renewed late next year, but details are still sketchy thus far. The king of all trucks - the Toyota Hilux is already in its 6th year and its replacement won't be due until late 2014 / early 2015. But don't be too quick to count out the old girl. As Toyota Australia senior executive director of sales and marketing recently said, “Contrary to what some commentators are saying, there is plenty of fight left in the old HiLux.” The sales data proves it. Despite its age, the Hilux is hardly showing any sign of slowing down, and certainly no sign of it relinquishing its top spot on the sales chart anytime soon.