Chevy Beat: Reading the Pulse of the Minicar Market

Call it car design for the Internet generation: Rather than trying to decipher the varying desires of young car buyers in urban markets - the target demographic for General Motors' new global minicar - GM innovated and went after these buyers directly with an online poll and a choice of three distinct designs. After counting some 1.8 million online votes and taking the three minicars to auto shows around the world, GM has decided to put the people's favorite - the Beat - into production.

The Beat design features sharp-edged styling meant to capture the attitude of an import tuner. Its rival siblings, the Groove and Trax concepts, are both a bit more rugged. The Groove adopts what GM calls a "funkastalgia" theme that gives the small four-door the look of a mini panel wagon in the vein of the two box designs now growing in popularity. The Trax is the mini-crossover SUV of the group, complete with requisite dual-tone paint and all-wheel-drive. All three designs emerged from GM's Design Studio in Inchon, South Korea, which specializes in small car development. GM says the response to each of the concepts was positive, but in the end, it was clear which one had the competition, well ... beat.

It is perhaps not surprising that online voters favored the sporty design of the Beat. The Beat concept is powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine, while the other two rely on 1-liter engines, gas-powered in the Trax and diesel-powered in the Groove. That said, the distinction is somewhat moot since GM has yet to announce what engines will be offered in the production Beat. We predict fuel economy will be superb in any event.

The production Beat serves as an important application of GM's global product development process, which intends to leverage the best of the company's resources from around the world - in everything from design to engineering - to improve collaboration and responsiveness to emerging markets. In this case, the running prototype of the Beat concept was built in India, with additional development input coming from GM's Korean partner, GM Daewoo. Production is set to begin in mid-2009 in South Korea, which is one of the new car's primary markets.

Initial production will be targeted to markets outside North America. That said, an important part of GM's goal with its online polling was to track U.S. market interest in the minicar segment, something we take as a sign that the Beat, or cars like it, are on the horizon for our shores.