Having confirmed that the all-new, midsize Colorado pickup will be sold in the U.S., Chevrolet today confirmed that the new truck will be built in Wentzville, Missouri. The announcement entails a $380 million dollar investment in the assembly plant, as well as the creation of 1,260 new jobs there.
The news isn’t a huge surprise, as reports from the United Auto Workers had previously suggested the new truck might be built in Missouri. Wentzville currently builds the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana commercial vans. The current version of the Chevrolet Colorado, along with its GMC Canyon twin, will continue to be built in Shreveport, Louisiana, through the 2012 model year.
The new Colorado is already in production in Thailand, but Chevrolet has so far offered little indication of when the truck will start production and go on sale here. Nor do we know what engines will power the new pickup when it launches in our market. Foreign markets get a choice of 2.5-liter or 2.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engines, but the American-spec Chevy will more likely get some sort of gasoline engine.
We can probably expect to see the new Colorado launch here by mid-2012, after the current Colorado/Canyon trucks are phased out.
Source: Chevrolet
