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2008 Chicago Auto Show: GM President wants your vote

Comparing the efforts of automakers to sell you a vehicle to presidential candidates seeking your vote, Troy Clarke, General Motors Corp. group vice president and president, GM North America, says, “Let there be no doubt – General Motors wants your vote.”

Every candidate must have a platform, and sure enough, GM has one: “Energy Solutions.”

Clarke opened media days at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show by saying GM knows how important fuel-efficiency and environmental sustainability are to customers, so the company is going all-out with fuel-efficient technology that will lead to vehicles that provide those energy solutions.

Clarke says GM knows it must produce “what people want to buy, not what we may want to sell them.”

Sounds like a plan.

Technology will be crucial for future stuff, sure, but Clarke takes the time to reiterate what we expect to a recurring GM theme for the next several years: Ethanol is the best, most immediate way to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil...
To that end, Clarke announced the ’09 Chevrolet HHR joins GM’s expanding fleet of flex-fuel vehicles that burn E85 ethanol or conventional gasoline. The HHR’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder will be GM’s first flex-fuel four-pot engine – but Clarke says by 2012, half of all GM vehicles will be flex-fuel capable.

Maybe just don’t tell those voters about the 25 percent driving range they’ll sacrifice using E85, Tony. -- Bill Visnic, Senior Editor, AutoObserver


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1 Comment

ateixeira says:

12:26 PM, 02/ 8/08

Sounds like politics - overpromise, then underdeliver.

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