What's in GM's closet?

The American car companies have a long history of teasing and frustrating the consumer with concept cars. Back in the 60's one of the great "could have been" concept cars was the Chrysler gas turbine engine. Five prototypes and 50 production cars were produced. The engine did have practical problems and test consumers didn't like the acceleration lag but this was an engine with a tremendous amount of potential. It had few moving parts, could run on almost any liquid fuel and with some future development could meet the California pollution standards without a catalytic converter.

As a bit of trivia the research and development that when into Chrysler's gas turbine engine end up in the Abrams A-1 tank 20 years later. The A-1 is a heavy battle tank that can go 60 plus miles per hour (100km/h).

You may already know of the legendary EV-1, GM's electric car from the early 1990's. California had threaten to raise pollution standards for the state and require all car companies in the state to also sell zero pollution electric vehicles. California is a market no large car company can ignore, if California was a separate nation it would have the sixth largest economy in the world.

If you ever saw the movie Who Killed The Electric Car, you do have to ask did GM build the EV-1 to fail? As an electric car the EV-1 was not a cutting edge vehicle but maybe to GM's shock and dismay the 50 test consumers really like it. All of the EV-1s were leased and at the end of the test period GM reposed them. There were protests and many of the former drivers made ever legal effort to buy their EV-1. Gm had all of the destroyed except one that is now in a museum (minus the drivetrain). It is on display as one of those wild and crazy ideas that just didn't work.  

Before the EV-1 was the Lean Machine. It was displayed at the EPCOT center, Disneyland Florida in 1982

What made the Lean Machine spectacular was how it made a three wheel vehicle stable on the road and maybe even more fun to drive than a motorcycle. Practical in bad weather, safe and fun, it could have been the perfect commuter car that could get up to 100 miles per gallon. What impresses me is how simple the technology was. There's no need for gyroscopes or computer assistance.

GM had no plans to produce the Lean Machine back in 1982 and still has no plans to make anything like the Lean Machine today. Like the Prius, it will probably take a foreign manufacturer to establish the market for this kind of car. 

 Mercedes Benz has their own (and more sophisticated) version of the Lean Machine.

See the Youtube video below.

Volkswagen has a different spin on the sub-compact commuter car. this is from their one-liter car project. It's vehicle that can get 200 miles per gallon

It can be done.

Her are some Youtube videos of the Mercedes F-300, GM's Lean Machine and a car currently made in the Netherlands by the Carver Car Company

It was once rumored back just after the first big oil shocks in the 1970's a GM executive was interviewed about the Chevy Vega. The Vega was a sub-compact car that GM rushed on to the market to help stop the loss of sales to Japanese car companies. The Vega was also known for its lack of quality and when that GM executive as question about that he supposedly said "that GM doesn't really want to build small cars, and once this gas crisis stuff blows over American will go back to the big cars they already love".   

Then again things could change.