GM thinking smaller: Automaker may produce Chevrolet Beat minicar
04.07.2008 10:01
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- Source: toledoblade.com
General Motors Corp., the automaker that popularized the Hummer, may sell a mini-car four feet shorter than its biggest offering and more than a foot shorter than anything else it markets in the United States to win back buyers scared off by high fuel prices. GM may bring the production version of the Chevrolet Beat to the United States, people familiar with the plan said. The car, which would normally be reserved for markets such as Asia and Latin America, gets as much as 40 miles a gallon, a fuel efficiency topped in America only by hybrids. The possible American introduction of the Beat would be one step in a fleet downsizing and shift away from fossil fuel-based vehicles that the people said is under way at the Detroit automaker. Resigned to $4-a-gallon gasoline and stricter pollution rules, the largest U.S. automaker has recognized that its response must go beyond the mothballing of large truck plants, the people said. "This is a very big change for GM," said John Wolkonowicz, an analyst at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass. "They have no choice. There's never been as rapid a shift in consumer demand in the history of the auto industry." GM, turning 100 this year, has few options to re-inventing itself. The company reported its largest annual loss in 2007, $38.7 billion,after a tax accounting change, and hasn't had a profitable year since 2004. Its U.S. market share is at the lowest level since 1925, and last year GM was 3,000 cars away from being dethroned by Toyota Motor Corp. as the world's largest automaker. Besides the Beat, GM is weighing a list of options for refocusing its lineup on fuel efficiency rather than performance. They include the U.S. introduction of a small pickup popular in Latin America and expansion of the number of versions of the Volt plug-in electric car . GM is also trying to increase production and speed up availability of the successor to the Chevy Cobalt sedan and develop a fuel-efficient alternative to the Cadillac Escalade sport-utility vehicle, they said. GM currently produces the Chevrolet Aveo sedan and five-door subcompact to compete in the growing mini car market. The Beat is a front-wheel-drive three-door hatchback powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. The company has declined to says what the price would be for the Beat, but Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said last year that GM mini cars ideally would start about $10,000 in the U.S. market. The automaker unveiled the Beat as a prototype at the New York auto show in April, 2007. Besides two hybrid models, the only car in the U.S. close to the Beat's projected fuel efficiency is Daimler AG's Smart car, with 36 mpg, according to Yahoo! Autos. At about 138 inches long, the Beat would be among the smallest cars sold in the U.S. Only the 106-inch Smart car is shorter. Sales of the smallest cars in the U.S. have risen 31 percent in the first half this year as the industry total fell 10 percent and the largest SUVs 31 percent.
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