GM Promises Ultra-Fuel-Efficient Car to Rival Smart

In its plan to Congress released yesterday, GM mentioned a number of initiatives to boost fuel efficiency. Many of the plans are ones we’ve known about in some way for a long time, including the introduction of the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, plus more traditional hybrids. However, there was a little bit of news to find. Here’s one nugget we had to highlight:
“The Plan includes introducing this market’s smallest four-passenger vehicle, achieving higher fuel economy than the two-passenger Smart ForTwo, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid vehicle in the U.S. market today.”
Say what? The Smart ForTwo gets 33/41 mpg and fits only two people. Could this be a production version of the Chevy Beat, which the company has been aloof about confirming?
The downside is that the blurb’s only time frame for producing this car was within a four-year plan to become more fuel-efficient. Would a 2013 Chevy Beat be a game-changer?




Perhaps an Opel Corsa or Agila derivative?
Posted by: | Dec 3, 2008 10:39:31 AM
Plans schmans. This promise is... not promising. I'll believe it when I see it.
Posted by: B | Dec 3, 2008 10:45:49 AM
Just make a Kei-car.
Posted by: J | Dec 3, 2008 1:04:02 PM
By then, Toyota might be releasing iQ. I wonder if Beat will beat the iQ.
Posted by: Hiro T. | Dec 4, 2008 1:19:07 PM
I meant if Toyota is releasing iQ in the US market by then.
Posted by: Hiro T. | Dec 4, 2008 1:20:00 PM