The Chevrolet Beat, America’s New Mini-Car?
This mean-lookin’ machine may wind up in your rear-view mirror someday, as GM is thinking hard about bringing this 40mpg car to America. Don’t you just love the way some cars take on an actual head-on personality. Engineers must love to do this sort of thing.
It’s called the Beat, and it’s a car that would normally be sold in other markets, such as Asia and Latin America. But with the high price of gas, and GM’s plunging losses ($38.7 billion in 2007), the company that brought you the Hummer may just have to re-invent itself. And, no, it isn’t a hybrid.
How big is a mini-car? The Beat would come in at about 138 inches, 11.5 feet in length. You may have seen this concept model at the April 2007 Auto Show in New York. Daimler AG’s Smart car is smaller at 106-inches, and boasts a 36 mpg range.
No plans yet for actual construction of the Beat, except that engineers are finishing the final configuration, and GM hasn’t said where the car would be manufactured.
Photo Credit: Bloomberg.com
Source: Bloomberg.com
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That the ugliest small car I’ve ever seen. GM needs to throw out all their designers and hire some people who don’t draw with an ugly stick.
Why not make this a hybrid? They could have bumped up the MPG at least another 10. I like the direction GM is going, but they really need to get a serious fuel-efficient revolution started here in the U.S. I’m scratching my head as to why this isn’t made of carbon fiber composites and at the very least why it isn’t hybrid. I would love to buy a car made in the U.S. but right now Toyota has GM beat with the Prius and Camry hybrid.
I hope GM follows through and brings this to the US sooner rather than later. It’s a good concept and I think it will catch. My understanding is that aside from the gas mileage this car has an extremely low sticker price as well.
Small and cheap is no match for light weight materials and a high tech engine. For those who haven’t heard, great strides have been made in light weight fuel efficient engine technology. The dual turbo diesel has the lead at the moment and GM has none to offer. Hybrid wire to the wheel motor tech is state of the art and working models were developed by the US Army. Solar turbines makes the most efficient electric power generators in the size of a gym bag.
It is easy enough to manufacture personal transportation that gets 80 mpg. Charging $40,000 for such a small package is the problem GM faces. My neighbor solved the problem. He bought a Chinese electric bicycle for $800. It has 20 gears and very efficiently transports him wherever he needs to go. The motor is as big as a fist, and the battery is the size of a laptop computer. Everything else is a regular bicycle.
Aluminum, plastic, carbon fiber, and titanium have been around a long time. It doesn’t take more than 15 pounds worth and 1/4 horsepower to support and transport across the finish line in a bicycle race.. For another hundred pounds and two horsepower you could have three wheels, two seats, and 50 mph.
Come on GM!!!! We are counting on you! Use that good old Yankee ingenuity and get us rolling. You are ahead of your time coming out with this idea in april of last year! At 10,000 or so you could make a killing and bring america back go gm go!!!
GM needs to introduce the 0.8-liter Beat to the US market in double time to overtake the avalanche of other foreign auto company entries in a $7+ per dollar gasoline environment!
40mpg ???? GM what are you thinking? Honda on has a 62mpg non hybrid, VW has a 50 mpg. Both are built much better than this junker. Then people wonder why the american car makers are hurting.
I own a 99 Geo Metro three cylinder five speed that get great gas mileage-overall 41 mpg at 75 mph with ac. Why did you stop making this?
I own a 07 Aveo four cylinder automatic–32 mpg driven at 70 mph
bring on the Beat asap–maybe a 5 speed if more mpg!
Vauxhall Corsa The 1.0 is suitably miserly, giving 50.4 mpg
$15.133.00 US — 07/02/2008
Astra is a model-name which has been used by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors (GM), on their small family car ranges since 1979. Astras are technically essentially identical with similar vehicles offered by GM’s German subsidiary Opel in most other European countries.
For the first two generations, the nameplate was applied to UK spec right-hand drive versions of Opel Kadett (which it was sold as in the Republic of Ireland in right-hand drive), and since 1991, Opel also uses the Astra nameplate, so Vauxhall and Opel Astras are essentially identical vehicles.
The new Opel mini-monocab bears balanced proportions, soft curves and a distinctive side graphic. Its passengers still sit high and upright, but the roofline has been dynamically lowered and blends into a smooth arc toward the rear. This helps create the Agila’s aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.32 - a relatively low figure for a vehicle of this size.
Models Miles per gallon (MPG)
1 - 83.10 mph CITROEN C1 MPG
2 - 83.10 mph TOYOTA Aygo MPG
3 - 80.70 mph FIAT Grande-Punto MPG
4 - 78.40 mph VAUXHALL Corsa-MY
5 - 76.30 mph FIAT New-Panda MPG
6 - 76.30 mph PEUGEOT MPG
7 - 76.30 mph CITROEN C2 MPG
8 - 76.30 mph CITROEN C3 MPG
9 - 76.30 mph VAUXHALL Corsa-MY2006 MPG
When are you guys and the rest of the auto world going to get serious? The new BEAT looks great, but 41 mpg HWY come on. My 65 Ford Falcon 6 cyl three on the tree did almost that well over 40 years ago. Let’s get serious and produce some vehicles that get upwards of 50 mpg.