Chevy Traverse gets first off-road trim, more tech on 2024 model

“Our new Traverse is designed and engineered to act and look more like an SUV,” Scott Bell, vice president of global Chevrolet, said in a statement. “Led by the all-new Z71, the 2024 Traverse builds on the success of its predecessor and will undoubtedly enable us to be in more customer driveways.”

Last redesigned for the 2018 model year, the Traverse gets a new 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which GM estimates will produce 315 hp and 317 pound-feet of torque, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive is available.

The outgoing model has a 3.6-liter V-6 and nine-speed transmission for 310 hp and 266 pound-feet of torque.

GM in January 2022 announced a $510 million investment in its two Lansing-area assembly plants in Michigan, including to build the next generation of the Traverse and Buick Enclave at the Lansing Delta Township plant.

The segment is “very important to General Motors, and it’s very important to Chevrolet,” Rory Harvey, GM’s new president of North America, said Monday at an event to reveal the Traverse.

Harvey said the Lansing plant has built 1.65 million Traverses since the vehicle debuted in 2009. Between the anticipated demand for the Traverse, as well as the Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia that will share a platform, GM expects to be able to add a third shift at the factory next year, Harvey said. The plant has not operated a third shift since 2017.

“We think that this is going to sell significant volumes,” he said. “We’ve already got positive momentum and we see that momentum continuing. So we think that we’re going to have enough demand out there in the marketplace to be able to fulfill three shifts.”

The Traverse is an important model in the growing large crossover segment. Since the current generation arrived, it has faced new competition from the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride crossovers and redesigns of the top-selling Toyota Highlander and Ford Explorer.

U.S. sales of the Traverse rose 55 percent to 68,681 in the first half of the year, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. That compares with 113,423 Highlanders, down 3.4 percent, and 104,423 Explorers, up 1.5 percent.