Chevrolet Silverado, Corvette and GMC Yukon safe despite new emissions standard

The Chevrolet Silverado pick-up, Chevrolet Corvette supercar and upcoming GMC Yukon SUV are in no danger of being axed in Australia due to the federal government’s pending 2025 New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), according to General Motors’ local boss.

Speaking with media this week, GM Australia and New Zealand managing director Jess Bala said there was “definitely not” a risk of the GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV) model range being withdrawn from sale – or even being subject to price increases – as a result of the NVES.

“Like all of the other brands, we’ve been in discussions with the right groups around the new vehicle emissions standard,” said Bala, before reaffirming GMSV’s continued and growing presence in the Australian market.

“Obviously we fully support bringing in an emissions standard. The country, to be honest, is behind a lot of other global markets and for us obviously internally we’ve been analysing what that means for our portfolio overall, but… the customer is our centre and we are committed to providing vehicles that the customers need.

“We will continue to make sure we offer customers the cars that they need, but will work with the right government bodies to obviously support the introduction of an emissions standard at the same time.”

The Australian government ended up bowing to industry pressure in late Mach by watering down its NVES legislation, with concessions primarily revolving around the reclassification of large SUVs – particularly ladder-frame or ute-based wagons – into the same emissions bracket as light commercial vehicles (LCVs) instead of passenger cars.

While this doesn’t impact the Silverado, it does mean upcoming Yukon won’t be penalised as heavily as it otherwise would have been.

Other changes to the NVES include the smoothing of the emissions cap trajectory for LCVs, the adjustment of weight-based relative emissions limits (known as the break point) and a staggered implementation that won’t see car-makers issued credits or penalties until July 1, 2025.

A co-incidental but no doubt welcome buffer for GMSV’s V8-powered pick-up, supercar and SUV is GM’s upcoming launch of the Cadillac brand, which will solely offer battery-electric vehicles Down Under, thereby offsetting at least some of Chevrolet’s and GMC’s emissions penalties with its own credits.

Cadillac’s local launch is being spearheaded by the Lyriq large electric SUV – due on sale in the fourth quarter – but it will eventually be bolstered by the Optiq, Vistiq and Escalade IQ, which will yield more emissions credits.

“Obviously it’s important given what’s been happening with the evolution of the emissions standard, but it was already part of our plan to bring the Cadillac brand in with the Lyriq and any future EVs well before this emissions standard obviously surfaced,” Bala said.

“So while yes, it will play a role [Cadillac EV emissions credits], it’s not also the be-all and end-all – we will continue to offer the cars that our customers want, for sure.”

Local GM management claims to have thousands of expressions of interest in the Cadillac Lyriq, which bodes especially well for the smaller and inevitably cheaper Optiq, not to mention the bigger seven-seat Vistiq, announcements about which will be made in the coming months.

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