2007 Los Angeles Auto Show

GM's Chevy a go for green at start of L.A. Auto Show

Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

General Motors Corp. will make Chevrolet, its best-selling brand, the center of an urgent attempt to cast the automaker as a progressive, environmentally friendly company to consumers worldwide.

GM, in an uphill battle to cultivate a green image, will use an appearance today at the eco-centric Los Angeles Auto Show to prove it has the products and technological know-how to back up Chevy as an Earth-friendly brand.

"In the past, we haven't told our story as well as we could," said Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development. "And this is a competitive game."

The approach will involve a massive, worldwide marketing campaign and a lineup of vehicles that uses a variety of fuel-saving technologies -- including some that have yet to be created.

As part of the announcement, GM today will debut its gasoline-electric Chevrolet Silverado, the nation's first hybrid pickup.

The automaker is struggling to overcome a less-than-stellar reputation when it comes to the environment, and trying to do so without an iconic hit like Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid.

Toyota's success with the Prius has helped make the brand synonymous with environmental consciousness, an image that has propelled the Japanese automaker's success worldwide.

"That bought them an image every other automaker would die for," GM's Burns said.

In contrast, the Chevy strategy aims to take a portfolio of complicated technologies, some that exist and some yet to be realized, and turn it into something marketable and digestible to U.S. consumers.

The marketing piece of the strategy will tout Chevrolet's five "Fuel Solutions:" more efficient internal combustion engines; biofuels such as E85 ethanol; gas-electric hybrids; electrically driven vehicles; and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The brand's new tagline is "Chevrolet, from gas-friendly to gas-free."

On the product side, GM plans to eventually offer a green version of virtually every Chevy model.

The centerpiece of the effort is the Chevrolet Volt, GM's much-hyped, ambitious attempt at a plug-in hybrid car introduced at the Detroit auto show in January. There's also a fleet of 100 hydrogen-powered Chevy Equinox SUVs being tested in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. And GM will announce today a deal with the Walt Disney Co. to use 10 more fuel-cell-powered Equinoxes to shuttle workers and others at Disney facilities in California.

Both the Volt and the fuel cell project, however, remain veiled in uncertainty. GM is still working to develop a lithium-ion battery durable and affordable enough to power a Volt for the mass market, and an infrastructure for hydrogen vehicles does not yet exist.

But a number of other technologies are either on the market or on the way.

A hybrid version of the Malibu sedan will hit showrooms before the end of the year. The 2008 Tahoe SUV is available as a hybrid. Several Chevy cars and trucks are capable of running on E85 ethanol, a fuel mix that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The 2008 Aveo subcompact, which goes on sale next year, will use a traditional powertrain to deliver 34 miles per gallon in highway driving.

Yet even with its changing lineup, GM faces a tough audience of skeptics. Its bottom line relies heavily on high-margin trucks. Meanwhile, its Hummer brand of luxury SUVs has come to embody the gas-guzzling excess of the U.S. auto industry.

"They don't have a strong history of being as environmentally focused as Toyota or even Ford (Motor Co.) with its Escape" hybrid SUV, said Michael Robinet of CSM Worldwide, an automotive forecasting firm in Northville.

Robinet said GM has the product to become credible, even among import-loving East and West coasters who want to drive green vehicles.

"It all has to do with product," he said. "There is no reason, as long as the product is right, that someone like General Motors can't do well there, too."

You can reach Sharon Terlep at (313)223-4686.