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| This undated file photo provided by GM Korea shows the Trax Crossover. Yonhap |
General Motors (GM) on Wednesday began to sell the Trax Crossover in Korea following its launch in the U.S. market late last year.
GM plans to fully operate its Korean plant in Changwon, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, until the second quarter to meet rising global demand for the Trax Crossover.
Last month, GM Korea, the Korean unit of GM, started production of the new model at the Changwon plant and the first shipment of about 6,000 units was shipped to the United States.
"The Trax is affordable and it has incredible safety technology and fuel efficiency. In the U.S. we are already seeing positive customer response and high demand, and I am confident that it will be the same in Korea," GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.
The Trax is a product of intense collaboration between GM teams in Korea and the U.S. ― and this is only the beginning, she said.
The new model comes with a 1.2-liter E-Turbo Prime engine, six-speed automatic transmission, six air bags and some safety features, such as forward collision alert, lane change alert, and rear cross traffic alert systems, the statement said.
It sells at 21 million won ($16,000), with the prices going up to 27 million won, depending on options.
"We are paving the way for GM's new target segment, crossovers, with the Trax Crossover's launch in Korea," GM Korea President Roberto Rempel said.
GM Korea currently churns out three models, including the Trailblazer and the GM Buick brand's Envista crossover, which are being assembled in the Bupyeong plant. The Trax Crossover and the Trailblazer are for domestic sales and exports, while the Envista crossover is not for the local market.
In a two-track strategy, GM Korea sells domestically produced and imported vehicles in Asia's fourth-biggest economy.
Its lineup is composed of two locally assembled models, the Trailblazer SUV and the Trax Crossover, and six imported ones ― the Colorado pickup, the Bolt all-electric car, the Equinox, Traverse and Tahoe SUVs, as well as the GMC brand's Sierra Denali pickup.
The Spark mini car, Trax compact SUV and the Malibu midsize sedan were part of the lineup, but the company stopped their production last year.
Most of the models currently sold in Korea are from the Chevrolet brand. The Cadillac brand models are available here as well.
GM Korea plans to add more GMC brand models to its lineup depending on market demand.
For the whole of 2022, GM Korea's vehicle sales rose 12 percent to 264,875 units from 237,044 a year earlier. (Yonhap)
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