Rumors are suggesting a new Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison could be heading to production soon just in time to combat a rising surge of mid-size, off-road ready pickups. While the rumor hasn’t been confirmed, crazier things have happened.
According to an AutoBlog story, Chevrolet has filed a Bison trademark claim for the words “ZR2 Bison” and has even created a logo.
This logo and name refers to a pickup shown at last Fall’s SEMA show built by American Expedition Conversions. The company known for building concepts like the Brute, Recruit and Prospector applied its own brand of over-the-top engineering to the mid-size Colorado.
The one-off concept features plenty of off-the-shelf mods as well as custom features. Starting off with new front and rear bumpers, new underbody skid plates, bed rack, fender flares and a snorkel kit. The pickup rides on a set of 35-inch BF Goodrich KM2 mud-terrain tires with AEV beadlock wheels. Lighting is improved thanks to LED light bars both front and rear.
The bed features an ARB refrigerator, aluminum storage case and NATO-style light bars.
Finally, when things get really gnarly, there is a Warn winch, recovery shackles, a Hi-Lift jack and MAXTRAX sliders.
In short, it is ready for anything you could throw at it.
Now, will it be built? Sure, why not? Crazy things happen. The market is trending to more off-road capable mid-size pickups with the regular ZR2 being a big hit for Chevy, the TRD Pro Tacoma and even the old Nissan Frontier PRO-4X selling well. Add in a new Jeep Scrambler pickup, basically an extended Jeep Wrangler, as well as the return of the Ford Ranger with a rumored Raptor variant and it isn’t rocket science figuring out what’s hot right now.
My guess is if we do see something it will be at this year’s LA Auto Show coming in November. This would be the most likely spot for a reveal of a production version.
