General Motors at the LA Motor Show

It's hard to associate Chevrolet with the environment when earliest memories of the brand include the 327CID Impala, but there you have it... GM is marking out a shift towards more efficient cars for the 'bow tie' brand.

Since the demise of Daewoo as an international brand, Chevrolet has moved in and the former Daewoo models have been rebadged -- with some degree of success -- as Chevs for Europe and other markets.

These days, buyers are just as likely to think of Chevrolet as the company that markets the Aveo and Lacetti (our Holden Barina and Viva, respectively).

So with that in mind, it makes sense for General Motors to promote Chevrolet as the corporation's environmentally conscious brand, a 'manufacturer' of frugal small cars such as the 'Beat', the concept car which will go into production for a launch in markets outside North America around the middle of 2009.

The Beat concept was unveiled at the New York Motor Show earlier this year, along with two other concepts developed by the GM-Daewoo team in South Korea. An online poll gave the Beat the nod for production, ahead of the other two cars, the Groove and the Trax.

The corporation made a number of announcements at the Los Angeles Motor Show concerning the Beat and other upcoming models that will extend Chevrolet's name for producing fuel-efficient vehicles.

In North America, Chevrolet will build the Silverado truck as a two-mode hybrid-drive vehicle, as well as the mid-sized Malibu with hybrid drive. In partnership with the Walt Disney Company, Chevrolet will build ten Equinox fuel cell vehicles to operate as shuttles around Disney's facilities in California.

The Equinox is a 'crossover' SUV which has already been produced in limited numbers with motive power provided by a fuel cell and electric drive. Fuel cell Equinoxes are currently undergoing what might be called 'Beta testing' with families in California.

Not only is Chevrolet committed to building hybrid-drive vehicles and the fuel cell Equinox, it is also engaged in developing other technologies which will ultimately reduce dependence on fossil fuels, in addition to lowering CO2 and NOx emissions. Such technologies include E85 (85 per cent ethanol mixed with petrol) and the Volt electric vehicle concept.

Chevrolet won't be the sole exponent of General Motor's long range plans to tackle 'CAFE', with Cadillac -- of all the companies under the GM umbrella, the least likely on the face of it -- displaying the 2009 Escalade Hybrid. The Escalade is a large SUV which, as a two-mode hybrid, offers a substantial improvement in fuel economy over the petrol-only model.