Posts Tagged ‘General Motors’
Dream Cars: Innovative Design, Visionary Ideas
Dream Cars is a major exhibition of innovative design that brings together 17 concept cars from across Europe and the U.S. The exhibition features some of the rarest, most imaginative cars designed by Ferrari, Bugatti, General Motors, Porsche and others.
The cars, from the early 1930s to the 21st century, pushed the limits of imagination and foreshadowed the future of design with progressive and innovative ideas.
We can’t show you all of the cars, but below are a few of our favorites:
Dream Cars.
1947 Norman Timbs Special.
Look closely at the wheel … it’s Barbara Pomerance and Bonnie Moret.
1936 Stout Scarab.
Barbara Pomerance and the 1948 Tasco.
1934 Edsel Ford Model 40 Special Speedster.
1942 L’Oeuf Electric
1955 Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X “Gilda.”
Barbara Pomerance and Ken Gross, Ken Gross, guest curator and museum consultant.
Ken Gross, guest curator and museum consultant with Nick Palermo, Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association (GAAMA) president.
1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt.
1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne.
1951 General Motors Le Sabre XP-8.
1956 Buick Centurion XP-301.
1959 Cadillac Cyclone XP-74.
2010 Porsche 918 Spyder Concept Car.
2001 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model.
1935 Bugatti Aerolith.
Barbara Pomerance and the 1953 General Motors Firebird I XP-21.
Porsche display outside of High Museum.
Special thanks to Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association (GAAMA) and the High Museum of Art for the invitation to the preview.
For more information about Dream Cars or to purchase tickets, visit www.high.org.
Best Car Design Since 1960s Drives U.S. Market Share Gain
From the fires of Detroit’s descent into near-death, GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have forged some of the most distinctive designs since tail fins were soaring in the halcyon days of the postwar-era. Read more about Detroit’s Big Three by clicking the link below:
Happy reading!
Bonnie
And yet…
GM won’t make its sales goals for the Volt. The company’s CEO is banking on consumer satisfaction — the Volt ranks #1 on that score, says Consumer Reports (see below) — and offering to buy back the vehicle from any unhappy customers.
David Shepardson of The Detroit News has the story.
Look out, Zipcar, and why we need partnerships between big guys and small fries.
GM’s getting into the car-sharing business with its new partnership with San-Francisco-based RelayRides.
(By the way, what is it with company’s names these days — if you’re not smushing two words together, each with the first letter capped, you are apparently not cool. We should probably become PomeranceAssociates. Kidding.)
Anyway, this move underscores a key strategy that can bring great success to both the mainstream heavyweights and the new ventures. It’s called partnership, and it works beautifully. The startups get much needed backing and credibility, while the big corporations get an injection of cutting-edge cool. You’re seeing this happening on a very big scale in the media industry as mainstream publications try to co-opt the viral fandom of independent and hypercool agents.
The importance of such partnerships was eloquently argued in a recent Forbes piece by Rachel Sheinbein, a partner at the San Francisco-based venture capital firm, CMEA Capital, and also a friend of mine from college. Her article is below as is the Automotive News story on the deal between GM and RelayRides.
So hooray for GM on undergirding a small player in the business. And please don’t change your name to GeneralMotors.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/09/26/why-big-companies-need-to-partner-with-cleantech-startups/
http://tinyurl.com/5w8puvk
Sunny reports from LA
The Washington Auto Show delegation has returned from the L.A. Auto Show press preview day, which spelled considerable optimism for the industry.
As reported from the NYTimes Wheels blog;
“Such a strong presence for Nissan, Infiniti, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat — returning here for the first time in 27 years — at the Los Angeles show is seen as especially significant. A year ago, those automakers essentially shunned this stop on the worldwide circuit of auto shows. Over all, it is seen as a hopeful sign of a recovery in the industry. These new introductions, plus dozens of others, will help breathe life into a show that was in danger the last two years, during the depths of the industry’s depression, of becoming moribund.”
Here are Barbara’s pics on location.
Debut of the 2012 Ford Focus
Here is one of Stefan Jacoby, president and CEO of Volvo, who projected the company will have sold 380,000 vehicles by 2010. Jacoby also said Volvo will make a PHEV SUV next year.
Stefan Jacoby, president and CEO of Volvo
And, what would a blog post be without a little self-indulgence.
Here’s one of our team: Washington Auto Show Chairman Charles Stringfellow, who is apparently cutting up with Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the Green Car Journal.
L to R: Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal and editor of www.greencar.com, with Charles Stringfellow, Washington Auto Show chairman and CEO of Brown Automotive Group.
We work closely with Ron to produce our Green Car Summit on Capitol Hill.
Cogan’s Green Car Journal proclaimed the Chevy Volt its “Green Car of the Year” on Thursday. That prestigious award comes after MOtor Trend gave the Volt its coveted car of the year award as well.
Cogan will announce the Green Car Journal’s “Green Car Vision” award at The Washington Auto Show, keynoted by GM CEO Dan Akerson.
