“New” City Express Further Proof That Chevy’s Originality Is Depleting

Chevrolet unveiled a few new cars at the Chicago Auto Show, but it’s hard to be impressed by any of the new offerings when you consider the fact that two of the models are heavily plagiarized. The debut of both the Chevy City Express and the Chevy Reaper seem to imply that Chevy’s design team is strapped for original ideas.

The Chevy Reaper blatantly rips off the Ford Raptor, but even worse is the City Express cargo van which is just a re-badged Nissan NV200. The unveiling of the City Express at the auto show didn’t come with many surprises seeing as the automaker leaked photos of the cargo van way ahead of its debut, but what I found sort of appalling was that Chevy execs gave Nissan absolutely no credit in the unveiling presentation.

If Chevy was manufacturing the City Express themselves it would be understandable if there wasn’t any mention of the partnership, but they’re not. Nissan will be manufacturing these cargo vans and will begin sending them out to Chevy dealers later this year.

I guess I just don’t understand the reasoning behind the partnership. Chevy claims that the City Express is “based on” the Nissan NV200, but from what I understand, the City Express is essentially just the NV200 with Chevy badges on it. It’s not based on the NV200—it is the NV200. So why would Nissan allow Chevy to take the credit and the profit when they’re the ones doing all the work?

It would make more sense if the Nissan NV200 wasn’t available for sale here in the states, but it is. That’s what I’m having trouble getting my head around. It would be like McDonalds giving Burger King the secret recipe for their Big Mac. These are supposed to be competitors.

Perhaps Chevy thought that providing cupcakes and comic books after the unveiling would make people forget the fact that the cargo van isn’t even theirs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I would not be surprised if Chevy announces plans for a “Chevy Stallion that is definitely not at all in the least bit anything like the Ford Mustang” later this year.