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?

Comments

Perhaps an Opel Corsa or Agila derivative?

[B]

Plans schmans. This promise is... not promising. I'll believe it when I see it.

[J]

Just make a Kei-car.

[Hiro T.]

By then, Toyota might be releasing iQ. I wonder if Beat will beat the iQ.

[Hiro T.]

I meant if Toyota is releasing iQ in the US market by then.