GM updates highly profitable large SUVs

DETROIT – General Motors has updated its highly profitable large SUVs for Chevrolet for the 2025 model year to defend the brand’s long-standing segment leadership.

The Detroit automaker’s Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban have led the mainstream full-size SUV segment for over 45 years, according to GM. But increased competition from automakers such as Ford Motor, Jeep and Nissan Motor has slowly eaten away at the automaker’s market share.

“We’re playing a little offense here with what we’re doing today,” Chevrolet Vice President Scott Bell said Tuesday during a media event in suburban Detroit. “We certainly have a response for our competitors from multiple segments.”

Chevrolet’s retail market share of full-size SUVs is about 34.2%. Adding in its GMC sibling Yukon and Yukon XL SUVs, GM’s share is at 64% of the industry, according to the automaker. That’s down from more than 70% when the vehicles were last fully redesigned for the 2020 model year.

The large SUVs for GMC have also been updated for the 2025 model year. Both Ford and Nissan have updated their large three-row SUVs that are on sale this year.

Updates to the vehicles in general include new styling, larger interior screens, enhanced performance and, in some cases, the addition of new high-end models to boost profits.

For Chevrolet, the 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban check many of those boxes and include the addition of GM’s hands-free Super Cruise advanced driver-assistance system.

“Overall, they’re critical in our portfolio,” Bell told CNBC. “They’re very important to us from a profitability perspective, and they have been for four years.”

Starting pricing for the 2025 Tahoe will range from about $60,000 for a Tahoe LS to more than $83,000 for the top-end High Country. 2025 Suburban pricing will start between about $63,000 and more than $86,000. Prices include mandatory $1,995 destination charges.

Edmunds.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of CarMax, reports the mainstream full-size SUV segment has grown to represent 2.7% of the U.S. market this year, up from 2% in 2017. Segment sales totaled roughly 312,500 units through September of this year.

GM said sales of the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are significantly lower this year due to the model-year changeover and reduction in fleet sales, but the brand continues to easily lead the segment.

Combined sales of the Chevy SUVs, which are essentially the same vehicle but in different sizes, were off 19.3% through September compared to a year earlier to 102,292 units.

Sales of the Ford Expedition — the closest competitor to Chevy’s SUVs — totaled 73,396 units in 2023. Sales of that vehicle were up 3% through September of this year to more than 58,000 units.