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Steve Majoros on Chevrolet's Business Health (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pimpbox
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  Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. All right, time to kick the tires
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  Speaker 1: with Stephen Magarro's. He is US director Chevrolet Cars and
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  Speaker 1: Crossovers and he joins us now, Thanks very much for
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  Speaker 1: being with us. Steven, I gotta ask you about this
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  Speaker 1: a compact crossover market because this has really been growing
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  Speaker 1: and have been a sweet spot for for the industry
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  Speaker 1: as well as the larger A segment. But I know it.
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  Speaker 1: For example, they're posting double digit growth gains and indeed
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  Speaker 1: in this year and some months so we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: an eight or nine percent increase. What the fines the crossover,
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  Speaker 1: the the SUV small crossover market. Well, I think what
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  Speaker 1: you see, first of all, good act and thanks for
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  Speaker 1: having me on today. What you're seeing in the industry
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  Speaker 1: is a kind of a bit of a fundamental shift
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  Speaker 1: as people look for more utility safety technology, all the
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  Speaker 1: things are that they're looking for. They're migrating more towards
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  Speaker 1: crossover and support utild vehicles. And we've got some great
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  Speaker 1: news from Chevrolet and that amp out here in Chicago today.
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  Speaker 1: We'll tell us a bit more about that. Well, compact
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  Speaker 1: compact SuDS or compact crossovers are the number one segment
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  Speaker 1: in the industry, so selling well over two million units
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  Speaker 1: a year. So it's certainly the space where where we
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  Speaker 1: want to be. And today we're very excited that we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna have a global reveal of the all new cheval Equinox.
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  Speaker 1: This has been a real workhorse for us. It's been
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  Speaker 1: in the market for for us for about about ten
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years. We've sold over two million of these units ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: so it's been a workhorse for us. And we've got
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  Speaker 1: some great news today and there'll be a lot of
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  Speaker 1: details at this car once we reveal it here in
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  Speaker 1: Chicago tonight. What actually defines the compact crossover, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: is there it's a unibody construction. What what actually give
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  Speaker 1: us some details? Yeah, So the fundamental difference I guess
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  Speaker 1: between a crossover and suv is, as you describe, more
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  Speaker 1: unibody versus a body and frame more traditional truck. So
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  Speaker 1: you think about a Chevallet Tahoe or a Chevali suburb
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  Speaker 1: and those are more truck based abilities usually have a
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  Speaker 1: lot more capability for towing larger engines things like that.
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  Speaker 1: But It's beautiful about crossovers is they're really more nimble,
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  Speaker 1: they've got more efficiency, better fuel economy, but they still
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  Speaker 1: provide the functionality that that customers are looking for. And
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  Speaker 1: that's the segment that we're introducing Equinox today. So what
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  Speaker 1: does your you sold a lot of these kinds of cars,
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  Speaker 1: what is your marketing research tell you about the features
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  Speaker 1: that potential buyers are most interested in these kinds of vehicles. Yeah, well,
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  Speaker 1: crossovers have to not just do one thing right, They've
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  Speaker 1: got to do everything great and first and foremost people
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  Speaker 1: are looking for uh safety features, and we're adding a
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  Speaker 1: whole series of both uh UM active and passive safety features,
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  Speaker 1: things like forward collisional or lame departure warning, things that
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  Speaker 1: people just expected in vehicles today. But they have to
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  Speaker 1: be sick more than safe. They have to be practical.
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  Speaker 1: They have to deliver great fuel efficiency, they have to
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  Speaker 1: deliver the technology people look for, things like Apple Car
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  Speaker 1: Play and Right Auto. And at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: they have to deliver bullet proof quality. And if you
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  Speaker 1: look at what the cheval Equinox has delivered so far,
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  Speaker 1: it's currently jd powers winner for both initial quality as
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  Speaker 1: well as long term dependability. So when you have a
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  Speaker 1: formula like that, there's that's a pretty much reason to
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  Speaker 1: believe what We've had such great success, and we fully
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  Speaker 1: anticipate to have even more success with our next generation.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the competition and how
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  Speaker 1: what you're offering the specifications match up against Let's say
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  Speaker 1: the Buick what is it the end Vision. Uh, they're
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  Speaker 1: big in the compact crossover market. You've got the Volvo
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  Speaker 1: V sixty correct, You've got also the Sportage. I believe
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  Speaker 1: that's coming from Kia. Tell me about the what what
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  Speaker 1: specs you bring to the party. Well, I mean we
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  Speaker 1: literally open up the aperture when it comes to our
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  Speaker 1: competitive set. We look at high volume manufacturers like Ford
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  Speaker 1: and Toyota and Han certainly credible players in the marketplace.
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  Speaker 1: But the thing that Chevallet has been delivering when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to things like safety features I mentioned when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to things indiscrete exclusive like four G technology, So
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  Speaker 1: the kinds of things that customers say we want convenience features,
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  Speaker 1: we want those safety features, we want great performance. We're
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  Speaker 1: gonna introduce three band brand new power trains today with
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  Speaker 1: this Equinox, which will deliver more fuel efficiency, a better
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  Speaker 1: driving experience, and so when you have to check all
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  Speaker 1: those boxes, we feel we do a better job than anyone.
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  Speaker 1: I think that when you see the details on this Equinox,
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  Speaker 1: I think you'll see that to be true. And what
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  Speaker 1: about global markets, It feels like we're talking a lot
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  Speaker 1: about what's popular and sought after in the US. I
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  Speaker 1: was speaking to a money manager who goes to China
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  Speaker 1: a lot. He was very high on the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the Chinese are moving as fast as they can to
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  Speaker 1: all electric vehicles, and eventually they want to move entirely
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  Speaker 1: away from fuel. What do you see in the global
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  Speaker 1: market when it comes to demand, Well, the first and
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  Speaker 1: foremost what we're seeing is this Equinox will be indeed
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  Speaker 1: a global global product for US. We'll have this available
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  Speaker 1: in a hundred and fift markets. And so whether you
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  Speaker 1: look at Equinox, whether you look at our small suv
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  Speaker 1: our tracks Entry, which is available in seventy five countries,
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  Speaker 1: were able to leverage our global footprint and global scale
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  Speaker 1: to bring what customers are looking for. You know, you
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  Speaker 1: mentioned electrification. You know it's been a great month for US.
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  Speaker 1: Equinox isn't our only story the Bolt EV. We just
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  Speaker 1: introduced two significant pieces of news. First and foremost, here's
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  Speaker 1: the first affordable long range electric vehicle two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: thirty eight miles on all electric at a price under
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  Speaker 1: thirty thousand after federal tax credits. And so when you
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  Speaker 1: think about electrification, Chevrolet as a pioneer in that space,
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  Speaker 1: just as we've been a pioneer when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: things like crossovers support utilities. So, Steve, they just want
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  Speaker 1: to break in because get your quick thought here, because
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned the Vault to the Bolt, I beg your pardon.
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  Speaker 1: It's got a single pedal option. What is that about?
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  Speaker 1: Give you about thirty seconds. Well, yeah, it's called one
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  Speaker 1: pedal driving. And essentially what it does is, now the
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  Speaker 1: vehicle does come with two pedals, but what one pedal
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  Speaker 1: driving allows you to do is to capture some of
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  Speaker 1: that wasted energy during traditional breaking and actually feed that
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  Speaker 1: back into the battery pack. So it's one of a
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  Speaker 1: number of things we've got to even increase the efficiency
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  Speaker 1: and range of an all of her vehicle. All right,
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  Speaker 1: Steve Maduros, thank you so very much for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: Big announcements for GM out in Chicago tonight Steve Maduros
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  Speaker 1: is US director Chevrolet Cars and Crossovers. Want to thank
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  Speaker 1: him for joining us. Want to thank Mark Sanscuci, our
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  Speaker 1: producer today and Reggie Basil, our technical director as well.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Kathleen Hayes along with Pim Fox and this is
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg