http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...711140315/1014
Chevy aims for Earth-friendly image
November 14, 2007
BY MARK PHELAN
FREE PRESS AUTO CRITIC
LOS ANGELES -- General Motors will kick off an ambitious campaign to give its Chevrolet brand environmental credentials rivaling hybrid-master Toyota in a news conference at the Los Angeles Auto Show today.
It will be a tough sell, based on the reaction of leading environmental activists.
Dan Becker, environmental consultant and longtime director of the Sierra Club's global warming project, laughed at the idea.
"GM's an environmental pariah," he said. "They have zero credibility as an environmental leader."
Mark LaNeve, GM vice president for sales, service and marketing, knows the automaker has a bad reputation on the environment. The new marketing campaign is the first step in a
long-term attempt to change that image.
GM will stress fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, hybrids on vehicles sold now as well as the Volt extended-range electric vehicle expected to go on sale in 2010 and a fleet of
100 zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell Chevrolet Equinox SUVs consumers are to test in 2008, LaNeve said.
"We are going to offer solutions for our company, the consumer, America and the environment," LaNeve said, admitting that it will take a breakthrough vehicle like the Volt to change Chevrolet's image.
Toyota dominates the hybrid market with its popular Prius.
GM realizes it's tackling a long-term project, but the challenge may be even tougher than the company knows.
"Most of" the campaign's "claims are bunk," Becker said, dismissing Chevrolet's growing fleet of cars the EPA rates at or above 30 m.p.g. on the highway and alternative fuel-capable vehicles.
"They don't have any credibility on these issues," he said, noting that the E85 ethanol-gasoline blend key to GM's claims is virtually unavailable in California. The first commercial station to carry E85 in the state just opened in San Diego.
The campaign that begins today will tout Chevrolet with the slogan "Gas-friendly to gas-free."
"It's critical to our brand that providing fuel solutions be part of our image," Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper said. "This is certainly not business as usual. Chevrolet really is changing at its foundation of how we power America."
It will take more than a nifty slogan to change GM's image with environmental groups, said Jim Kliesch, senior engineer in the Union of Concerned Scientists' clean vehicles program.
"Evaluating an automaker's environmental performance based on an ad campaign is like judging how well somebody sings based on what kind of shoes they wear," he said.
Kliesch gives GM credit for the hybrid full-size trucks it has begun selling, including a Chevrolet Silverado pickup that is to be shown at the LA auto show today, and for development work on the Volt and fuel cells.
However, the automaker's lobbying efforts against high fuel-economy standards undermine that, he said.
"It's important to support policies to reduce carbon dioxide and raise fuel efficiency," Kliesch said. "GM and other automakers are lobbying against these standards. That does not gibe with the message they're trying to send."
Despite that skepticism, Chevrolet will become a leading environmental brand, LaNeve said. "We want to be seen as the solution, not part of the problem," he said.
Contact MARK PHELAN at
phelan@freepress.com or 313-222-6731