WARREN, MI: Every year the creative process at General Motors comes up with about 300 solid, grownup ideas for cars and trucks and SUVs and what-have-you that might actually make it as a real world production vehicles. After an excrutiatingly thorough review of all of these ideas, GM turns less than 10 of them into three-dimensional concept vehicles and shows them off to a curious world. For that reason alone it should be interesting to see what the world's largest auto company has come up with by way of concept vehicles for 2001. But when you consider that more than half of the concept cars GM showed off in 2000 will make it into production in the next couple of years, well, this year's round of concept cars takes on extra weight.
Enthusiastic GM executives at the preview of the 2001 concept cars made it plain that many of the vehicles I was looking at in the firm's design centre here in suburban Detroit would make it into production in some form or another. Most assuredly we will see something almost exactly like the Hummer H2, which GM likes to call a Sport Utility Truck, but more details on that in a minute. The Hummer H2 will likely appeal to people who are a little older and a little richer than the consumers the rest of the concept vehicles are aimed at, and GM is definitely going for younger and hipper buyers.
These vehicles will also feature more cooperation with various companies that GM owns, controls or partners with around the world. That may not interest some people, but others will be glad to know, for example, that Subaru had a hand in designing the all-wheel-drive system for one of the vehicles. All that being said, here's a quick tour through the concept cars that will debut at various auto shows around the world in the next six months.