GM won't go after micro-car segment
General Motors of Europe has looked the market potential for tiny cars like the Smart ForTwo, Volkswagen up! and Toyota iQ and found it wanting. Small cars like these are great in a strictly urban environment but they aren't very appealing for other applications. Even after ten years on the market, the Smart has never topped 100,000 sales in a market it has had to itself. Given what it sees as limited demand, GM has no current plans to develop a production car based on the Opel Trixx Concept it showed in 2004. According to GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster, they will Instead stick to slightly larger cars the size of the current Daewoo Matiz and the future Chevy Beat.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 10:33AM (12/04/2007)
Extended Range Electric Vehicles (E-REV) like the E-Flex Chevy Volt will become strong competition against the micro-cars. E-Flex uses NO gas for the first 40 miles. They have more room and will require less service (oil changes etc.) due to running primarily on electricity and with mass production perhaps even a better price. E-Flex allows micro-car shoppers to have their cake and eat it too.
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stefan72 6:13PM (12/04/2007)
The big manufacturers are a well established and slow moving group. They do not really ask us what car we need, they make us buy their cars thanks to smart advertising campaigns. As cities grow and more and more people are becoming less dependant on cars, we need new and more innovative concepts. The car is for many only a vehicle to drive to the countryside over the weekend. But whats the point of having a car if you are stuck every day in traffic during the week...CarSharing is the such a new initiative and companies such as 'Mobility' in Switzerland have proved to be highly sucessful...
But even the big manufacturers have now realized that they have to do something. Just a little bit late...
http://ecocarforum.com
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Throwback 7:21PM (12/04/2007)
Stefan I'm not sure where you live but in the USA we are a long way from not needing cars. There is a large percentage our population that live in small towns and rural Amrica. We won't be giving up our cars ever. We will certainly be driving different pwoered cars but we will still be driving.
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