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Chevrolet used its space at this week’s Detroit Auto Show to announce a production schedule on a SUV small enough to be built on a compact car platform but large enough to seat 7. The Chevy Orlando will go on sale in the U.S. in the summer of 2010, as a 2011 model – and the automotive press has exactly one thing to say about it – it’s spacious for its size.

Autoblog explains, “Based on the same platform as the Cruze, the Orlando offers seven seats in a relatively compact design.” Autoblog calls the crossover “more appealing than the HHR.”

Business Week comments, “The body has some European flair to it,” and again points out that “GM managed to pack three rows of seats on a small frame that will also host the Chevy Cruze compact next year.” The Cruze platform has proven very fuel efficient, and Business Week thinks the Orlando “should also get close to 30 miles per gallon.”

Both rows of rear seats fold flat into the floor, according to the Detroit News. “The concept also uses dual overhead glass on the rooftop allowing more light exposure into the cabin and a storage area inside the center console that can charge an iPod or iPhone.”

Though the Orlando is expected to appear first with a conventional four-cylinder engine, Automotive News speculates that the crossover could ultimately be sold as a Volt-like Extended-Range Electric Vehicle. “Although GM currently has no plans to use the Volt technology in the Orlando,” AN writes, “executives note that the Orlando will be built on an architecture that easily would allow GM to do so.”

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