Along with the announcement of the first official details regarding the all-new 2027 Chevy Sonic crossover, General Motors showed off a prototype of the model at its vehicle development center in Brazil.
The automaker’s South American subsidiary officially unveiled the Chevy Sonic crossover at GM’s prototype center located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, revealing interesting details about the development and assembly process of the test vehicle at a dedicated prototype assembly facility. The latter is part of GM’s South American engineering infrastructure where models such as the new Sonic are conceived, evaluated and refined.
“For the Sonic project alone, we assembled dozens of prototypes here, each dedicated to a specific experimental purpose – from performance and handling to legal certification, including safety assessments such as crash tests,” said South American Prototype Factory GM Daniel Prior. “GM works globally with very stringent validation standards, something we cannot compromise on. In fact, these development vehicles can cost up to 20 times more than the production car,” he added.
Notably, the first details of the new Chevy Sonic crossover were revealed at the manufacturer’s GM prototype plant somewhere in São Caetano do Sul, which specializes in assembling test vehicles evaluated by local engineering teams. On this occasion, GM South America released a series of never-before-seen images from the factory, showing prototypes of the Sonic crossover and other Chevrolet models.
The company stated that GM’s prototype center in São Paulo, where it showed off the new Chevy Sonic crossover, was able to build test vehicles long before mass production began. There, parts are manufactured using 3D printers, camouflage is applied, and simulations are carried out with the support of virtual reality resources to determine the product assembly process on the final production line in each factory.
The all-new 2027 Chevy Sonic crossover is in the final stages of real-world road testing, validation and homologation, just before production begins at GM’s Gravataí plant in Brazil. The new entry-level utility vehicle from the Bowtie brand is set to debut in the second quarter of this year, with its launch planned for the Brazilian market before export to the rest of the region.
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