Holden releases official pics of Cruze hatch

Local testing of pilot-build cars commences, ahead of production start at Elizabeth
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Regular readers of the Carsales Network's editorial content will be aware that the cover for Holden's Cruze hatch was blown two weeks ago. At the time, our Editor in Chief lifted the lid on the five-door small car, but now the local manufacturer has released official images of the new car — for the other media outlets that were a bit slow off the mark.

The blue car shown here in the authorised pic was, indeed, the very car spotted by our eagle-eyed EIC as it drove through Melbourne's southern suburbs. There's a little more detail discernible in the new pics — including the subtle, dihedral sculpture lines flanking the 'lion' badge in the centre of the tailgate.

Holden will build the Cruze hatch on the same production line as the sedan version, at the company's Elizabeth plant in South Australia. The five-door design was created at Holden's Port Melbourne design studio and has already been unveiled in other markets as the Chevrolet Cruze.

Due to appear in showrooms during the final quarter of 2011, the Cruze hatch may add enough sales volume to Cruze's total to take the Holden to the top of the small car segment, if last month's VFACTS figures are any reason to judge. The sedan came within 500 units of the Mazda3's sales in April — and with additional numbers factored in for the hatch, the Cruze may leap-frog the Mazda, already sold in both hatch and sedan forms.

Sales leadership for the Cruze will be a long time coming however, since the hatch won't reach the market until late in the year — too late in 2011 for the Cruze to catch the Mazda, which is already nearly 4200 units ahead of the Holden for the year to date.

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