Chevrolet News:The Possible Inventory Problem of the Chevrolet Equinox

[William Maley]

We're now into the third week of the strike at GM's CAMI Assembly in Ontario and neither side appears to be budging. There are rising concerns that GM could be running out of the stockpile of the Chevrolet Equinox. GM's second-best selling nameplate.

According to data from Automotive News, GM had 43,453 Equinoxes (about a 41-day supply) at the beginning of this month. Chevrolet dealers sold 27,512 Equinox models last month. If this trend continues, there could be some serious problems towards the end of the year.

"That's going to be hard on Equinox to compete on such a limited quantity in such a hot segment. We would expect sales to pick up in the last quarter of the year," said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst and director of pricing and industry analysis for Edmunds.com.

GM has been downplaying this issue since the strike started.

"We believe we have sufficient inventory and production to meet demand while negotiations continue and we continue to work closely with dealers to ensure customers continue to be well served," the company said in a statement.

A small number of dealers that spoke with Automotive News said their inventory of the Equinox models hasn't been directly affected, but that could change if the strike continues.

GM is ramping up Equinox production at two plants in Mexico - San Luis Potosi and Ramos Arizpe. The company declined to provide production capacity or change in plans due to the strike. But neither plant can compete with the output of CAMI. Through August, the two Mexican plants produced 40,017 Equinox models since production began in April. Compared to CAMI which produced an estimated 132,388 models in the same timeframe.

"We don't know the ramp-up at the other production facilities in Mexico. That's the X factor," said Caldwell.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

View full article

[G. David Felt]

Close that plant and just continue to ramp up Mexico and US production.

[riviera74]

Does GM NOT have an semi-idle plant they can use right now to build the Equinox in the USA?  They should just switch that plant over to Equinox production and then tell CAMI and its entitled labor force to go pound sand because they are fired.

[smk4565]

Option 1 is build them in Mexico, at least until Trump tears up NAFTA, which I don't really think will ever happen.  "all talk, no action"

The other option is dumping stuff like XTS, LaCrosse, Impala, which will happen, and convert those plants to build crossovers.  They can cut the Sonic too, and either import them from Mexico and South Korea or where ever else they make them, or just cut it from the US market all together.

Ford is going is only going to have 3 cars in a few years and the Focus will be built in China, and Fusion in Mexico I think is the plan.

[G. David Felt]

10 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Option 1 is build them in Mexico, at least until Trump tears up NAFTA, which I don't really think will ever happen.  "all talk, no action"

The other option is dumping stuff like XTS, LaCrosse, Impala, which will happen, and convert those plants to build crossovers.  They can cut the Sonic too, and either import them from Mexico and South Korea or where ever else they make them, or just cut it from the US market all together.

Ford is going is only going to have 3 cars in a few years and the Focus will be built in China, and Fusion in Mexico I think is the plan.

They also have more than enough capacity at their US plant to ramp up. I truly believe that between Mexico and the US, they can ramp up and offset the production. Let Canada Union starve on their strike BS. This also lets GM get out of having to pay back any tax breaks they were given to keep manufacturing there as the Union is who decided to strike hurting manufacturing in Canada, not GM.