Chevrolet Cruze: Photo update

Although General Motors released exterior pictures of the 2010 Chevrolet Cruze in August, we’ve had to rely on spy shots for a glimpse of the interior — until now. The automaker today released two interior photos to coincide with the car’s unveiling at the Paris Motor Show this week.

One surprising tidbit is that the Cruze appears to buck Chevy’s current twin-cockpit trend, as seen on the new Malibu and Traverse.

Outside, the Cruze takes styling cues from the new Malibu, and promises to be a much sharper car than the current Cobalt. Chief designer Taewan Kim says that the new Cruze’s design is meant to be “bold, not evolutionary. We wanted to take a big step forward, making a strong design statement for Chevrolet products around the world.”

The car will hit the European market in March of 2009, with U.S. production at the Lordstown, Ohio, plant, where the Cobalt is currently made, beginning in June 2010.

Although there is widespread speculation that the Cruze will eventually replace the Cobalt, it still remains possible that both cars could coexist within GM’s lineup. In fact, Chevrolet’s North American head, Ed Peper, says the Cruze is actually intended to create a new segment that slots above the Cobalt but below the Malibu. Seeing the car in person confirms the Cruze could fill that hole in Chevy’s lineup as it is actually bigger than it looks in pictures.

At its European launch, the Cruze will offer a 16-valve, 1.6-liter four-cylinder with 112 horsepower and a 140 horse 1.8 liter. Both gasoline engines will feature variable valve timing on both the inlet and exhaust sides. Also available for Europe, though not expected in the United States, is a 2.0 liter turbo diesel putting out 150 horsepower and 320 Nm of torque (official lb-ft. figures weren’t released, but we’d expect approximately 235 lb-ft). Transmission choices will include a five-speed manual or a six-speed automatic.

Based on what was once called the Delta 2 platform, the all-new Cruze will ride on GM’s Global Compact Vehicle Architecture. The primary engineering and development will come from GMDAT — General Motor’s Korean partner (although there has been strong input from the North American and European planning groups).

Codenamed GMX071, the Cruze shares many components as well as styling features with the next Daewoo Lacetti, including a large portion of sheetmetal.

Obviously Chevrolet’s Cruze and the Daewoo Lacetti will not be completely identical, as each will have different styling cues on the front and rear clips, headlamps and taillights.

Chevrolet will also offer another version for markets outside of the United States, known as the Optra. In addition to these, there will likely be up to 15 different cars for GM’s global markets based on this new “Global Delta” architecture.