Cruze hatches cool new look

The five-door Cruze, featuring Holden design elements, short overhangs and a more curvaceous roofline, was built in Melbourne. Photo / Supplied

General Motors has unveiled an Australian-designed hatchback that will become part of the carmaker's global line-up after its launch at next month's Paris motor show.

The five-door Cruze concept was styled and built at GM Holden's Melbourne design studio. It will wear a Chevrolet badge at its unveiling before the production version goes on sale in several countries from late next year.

The hatchback Cruze is expected to appear in New Zealand either late next year or early in 2012. It will be built at GM Holden's plant in Adelaide alongside the Cruze sedan.

The sedan is being built for New Zealand and Australia at GM's plant in South Korea. Production of the sedan will shift to South Australia early next year.

The 2011 Cruze sedan and hatch were expected to have been built alongside the Commodore from as early as this year. But the global credit crunch stalled plans.

The Cruze sedan and hatchback are expected to come with a more efficient 1.4-litre turbocharged engine that promises to offer greater performance than the car's current 1.8-litre petrol four.

Holden chief designer Richard Ferlazzo said his department spent more than a year working with GM designers from around the world to develop the hatch, which features Holden design elements, short overhangs and a more curvaceous roofline and rear-end than the sedan.

"Our brief was to create an alternative body style to the traditional sedan that retained the same dynamic proportions that has made Cruze such a success around the world," Ferlazzo said.

"We are proud of the result, which will be tailored further for the Australian market and given an appearance consistent with the rest of the Holden portfolio next year."

The Cruze, which has established itself quickly on both sides of the Tasman since its launch last year, is the first small car to be built in Australia since Toyota ceased Corolla production more than a decade ago.

GM's European press release says the Cruze wagon will offer a cargo capacity of almost 400 litres and the flexibility of a 40/60-split rear seatback.

The president and managing director of Chevrolet Europe, Wayne Brannon, said the hatchback would boost sales of the successful Cruze considerably in Europe - where more than three million small hatchbacks are sold annually - from mid next year. "Cruze is turning out to be a real success story. We are selling it in 70 countries around the world and it has recently surpassed the Aveo as our top selling passenger car nameplate globally," said Brannon.

"Hatchbacks play a critical role in many markets. The total compact segment in Europe represents about 4.8 million units, which is over a quarter of the total market, with hatchbacks representing about 65 per cent of that volume.

"We therefore expect to see increased business in a number of regions, while sending out a signal that Chevrolet is now a serious mainstream player in Europe."

So far this year, the Cruze tops the compact sedan sales segment in many large European markets, including Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, where it is exceeding forecasted sales.

In China, where the Cruze is also built, Chevrolet has sold nearly 90,000 examples this year alone.

While other popular Cruze markets include Russia, parts of South America and India, GM Holden is not now expected to export its first Australian-built small car since the Vectra in 1999.