NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: 2014 Chevrolet Impala

The updated Chevrolet Impala large sedan was revealed at the New York Motor Show by ex-Holden CEO and now GM North America president, Mark Reuss, but it's not likely to replace Commodore any time soon.

While the Chevrolet Malibu is coming to Australia late in 2012 or very early 2013 as Holden's new medium car, its bigger brother the Impala is a left hand drive only proposition, despite being based on the Epsilon platform that underpins some European RHD vehicles such as the Opel Insignia.

"It is based off the Epsilon architecture," Mark Moussa, GM's Global Chief Engineer, told motoring.com.au. "We started with the Opel Insignia, it's where [the platform] was born, and from there it covered a wider bandwidth."

Moussa explained that the Epsilon platform would become more widespread in its global large car plans, but the rear-drive Commodore is not in danger of being replaced by the front-drive Impala.

"There is no plan for any export applications [for Impala]," Moussa said, but he did acknowledge that RHD versions of the Impala were possible.

"Technically, there's no reason we couldn’t do right-hand drive. But is there demand? Is there a volume for right-hand drive [Impala]?" The answer is no.

Chevrolet's new Impala is offered with a range of premium driving aids, including adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation braking, forward collision alert, lane departure warning, side blind zone alert and rear cross traffic alert.

On sale in the US early in 2013, the Impala is powered by a troika of engines. The 3.6-litre V6 outputting 226kW will be familiar to Commodore drivers, a 2.5-litre four-cylinder unit worth 145kW is also offered and a 2.4-litre hybrid powertrain that develops 134kW rounds out the range.

The Chevrolet Impala is one of North America's best-selling large sedans and one of the top 10 cars in the USA, and is also the company's NASCAR Sprint Cup race car. However Chevrolet has confirmed that in 2013 it will bring in an all-new vehicle to go racing with, which could have ramifications for Holden -- particularly if it's a rear-wheel drive car.

When quizzed on whether Chevrolet's upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup race car would be based on the rear-wheel drive Zeta platform that underpins the Chevy Camaro and Holden Commodore, as some US publications have predicted, Moussa was tight-lipped.

"I honestly couldn’t comment on that at this time. It's possible, but it's something we can't divulge at this time."

Watch this space.

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