General Motors tipped its hand about an upcoming seven-passenger MPV in the labor agreement it drew up with the United Auto Workers in 2007. Now the spy shooters of Brenda Priddy & Company have come across the first fruit of that agreement with these images of a new MPV mule out and testing.

The vehicle appears to be built on GM’s global Delta chassis, which is an excellent indication that the MPV will be offered in many markets, and under the umbrella of several of GM’s brands worldwide. Priddy expects that the vehicle will be built domestically at the Hamtramck, Michigan plant, though much of the R&D work was likely done at the facility in South Korea.

The new hauler will most likely end up in the hands of Chevrolet, with Opel and Daewoo also being logical recipients.

GM's all new, global, 7 passenger MPV spied

When the UAW came to an agreement with GM in late 2007, documents detailing the terms were released that indicated GM would be building a global, 7 passenger MPV vehicle at the Hamtramck (MI.) plant starting in 2009.

Today we have the first photos of this global vehicle. Built on GM's global Delta chassis, production should start in the summer of 2009. While this MPV will be built in Detroit, GMDAT actually has the engineering lead in this program. We suspect R&D on this vehicle has been underway for some time in Bupyeong, South Korea.

Exactly how many of GM's brands will get this vehicle is still a bit of a mystery. According to the UAW documents, a Chevy MPV is certain. A Daewoo model, as well as an Opel model, are also good bets. In fact, this new MPV may very well be the replacement for the current Opel Zafira.

It's hard for us to say which model we have in our pictures as the prototype is testing without any front clip at all! However the absence of a front clip does allow us to glimpse the presence of an intercooler.

In person, our shooters say this vehicle is similar in size to the Mazda5.

Brenda Priddy