General Motors Corp. turned its opening news conference at the Detroit auto show into a pep rally touting the health of the company and its products, announcing plans Sunday to build a 40-mile-per-gallon (17-kilometer-per-liter) minicar for the U.S. market and unveiling a Cadillac concept car powered by electricity like the Chevrolet Volt, according to AP. The Chevrolet Spark subcompact was called the Beat when GM unveiled the three-door hatchback as a concept car in 2007, powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine. It's about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris and is set to go on sale in Europe next year and in the U.S. in 2011. GM also announced that the Chevrolet Orlando seven-passenger crossover vehicle will go on sale in North America in 2011. The company ended its showcase of 17 new and upcoming vehicles at the North American International Auto Show with a surprise: the Cadillac Converj concept car, which is designed to go 40 miles (64 kilometers) on electric power alone after being recharged from a standard wall outlet. A small gasoline engine would extend the range to hundreds of miles (kilometers). It's the same powertrain technology GM is using in the Chevrolet Volt, a much-anticipated extended range vehicle set to go on sale next year. Several hundred GM employees, dealers and retirees gathered inside the convention center for the unveilings, cheering and waving signs that said «Here to Stay» as they flanked the vehicles driving through the show floor. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told the crowd the vehicles are smaller, smarter and more fuel efficient, with «enough towing capacity» to pull GM out of its current troubles. The government granted the struggling automaker $13.4 billion in federal loans in December so the company could stay in business, and GM wants to show off innovations to demonstrate to people that the loans were a good investment. «We've made tremendous progress in the past several years of making cars and trucks that consumers really want to buy,» Wagoner said. GM also is showing off new versions of the Buick LaCrosse sedan, and the Chevrolet Equinox and Cadillac SRX crossover sport utility vehicles at the show. Those new 2010 models are set to go on sale later this year. Wagoner told reporters after the news conference that he is confident about GM's survival, even though it would have run out of money this month without government help. He said the company's restructuring plans presented to Congress, which include concessions from the United Auto Workers union, bondholders swapping debt for equity, and cost cuts to improve the balance sheet, along with GM's array of new products, will make the company prosper when the worldwide auto market recovers. «We'll be in a position to run the business at break-even or profitable at a much, much smaller industry than frankly a year ago that we ever felt would be possible to deal with,» Wagoner said. GM has teams of people working on each aspect of the plan, including identifying all bond holders and negotiating with them. GM is prepared for a U.S. market in which 10.5 million vehicles are sold a year, a big drop from 16 million as recently as 2007. Carmakers sold 13.2 million vehicles last year as the faltering economy, poor consumer confidence and tight credit sent sales diving toward the end of 2008. Wagoner predicted a slow first half of this year, but the start of a recovery in the second half as loosening credit and President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus package take effect to boost the economy from «very, very low levels.»
