At September’s Paris Motor Show, Chevrolet will roll out an all new compact crossover bound for global markets. Named the Chevrolet Trax, the new model features room for five and what Chevy is calling “class leading” cargo space.

It will launch in Canada and Mexico by year end, and eventually find its way into some 140 markets. Among them, however, won’t be the United States, since we’re not getting access to Chevy’s new compact crossover.

Officially, Chevy cites the strong market position of its mid-sized Equinox crossover as the reason why it won’t sell the Trax here, but we suspect there’s a bit more to it than that.

Buick is about to launch its own version, called the Encore, so selling the same thing (admittedly de-contented, and at a lower price) with a bow on the grille won’t help Buick’s sales. Buick desperately wants to attract younger buyers, and a compact crossover may help do just that.

It’s also likely that the Trax couldn’t be priced low enough to be competitive against the existing Equinox, so Chevrolet saw no sense in adding a model that wouldn’t sell in quantity at the price required. Raising the Equinox’s price to make the Trax more attractive would jeopardize Equinox sales, something Chevy isn’t willing to risk.

If you really want a Trax, your options appear to be relocation to Canada, Mexico or one of the other 138 global markets the crossover will be sold in. We suspect it will be far less expensive to just buy a Buick Encore and call it done.