While the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz are the only really small pickup trucks on sale in the United States, other markets have had a variety of little trucks. In Brazil, the newest will be the 2023 Chevy Montana. And it’s a sharp little thing that we can’t help but wonder if it could somehow end up here.
The press release was a little light on mechanical details, but the Montana’s based on the same platform as the Chevy Onix sedan and hatchback, and the Chevy Tracker crossover. Don’t confuse the Tracker for the old Suzuki-based SUV. The Montana is derived from the Chevy Tracker, which, although a bit similar in size and shape to the recently revealed 2024 Trax, it’s based on a different platform (Montana on GEM and Trax on VSS-F). According to Chevy, the truck was developed by GM technical centers in South America, North America and Asia.
Being based on the Tracker, the Montana should have MacPherson-strut front suspension and a torsion-beam rear end. There is a single powertrain option: a turbocharged 1.2-liter three-cylinder making 133 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque. It’s paired with a six-speed automatic and front-wheel drive. And while the platform may differ from the Trax, that powertrain is pretty much the same. According to Chevrolet of Brazil, the Montana has received a variety of structural reinforcements to handle truck duty, and apparently payload is close to half the truck’s weight. We would imagine that would be somewhere around 1,500 pounds, assuming the truck weighs around 3,000 pounds, give or take a couple hundred.
The truck is fairly small. It’s about a foot shorter in length than the Maverick and Santa Cruz. Chevy didn’t give a length for the bed, but it does look fairly usable. Chevy is also offering a really nifty shelf system. It consists of a couple panels that can be reconfigured to create a shelf in the bed or dividers. They have plenty of little hooks and tray bins, too, for further organization. Hard tonneau covers are available, too.
With the enormous popularity of the Ford Maverick, and even Ram looking at smaller trucks, it’s hard to imagine Chevy isn’t at least considering bringing something like the Montana to the United States, if not literally this truck.
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