Pontiac? General Motors' New Vehicles Need a Name

by Steph Willems

Published: November 3rd, 2018

pontiac general motors new vehicles need a name

Not to be outdone by Ford Motor Company’s Bay Area bikeshare program, General Motors has unveiled two new, two-wheeled vehicles that are sure to get any Camaro ZL1 owner’s pulse racing. We’ve poked fun at the Blue Oval’s non-car efforts of late, but entering the pedal-powered field is serious stuff for companies — stagnating new vehicles sales calls for a myriad of alternative revenue solutions. Just wait till Fiat Chrysler launches a RAMbike.

At least with GM’s latest mobility effort, a motor comes attached. What isn’t attached, however, is a brand name. GM needs help with that.

Your help. The two e-bikes, one folding, the other fixed, will be marketed under a yet-to-be-decided e-bike brand name sourced from the public. General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions is offering the winner $10,000, with a grand apiece going to the nine runner-up entries. Clever marketing types with a knack for naming have until November 26th to offer up a moniker, with their choices judged against a fairly lengthy list of criteria.

Reading through the list, it seems unlikely GM would choose this author’s preferred brand name, and it’s fairly certain we won’t see the Oldsmobile brand re-emerge in the most unlikely of forms. Wouldn’t that be something.

Interested in learning more about your next GM vehicle? There isn’t much to go on. Weight, dimensions, and electric range are not mentioned, leaving urban Chevy Sonic lessees on the cusp of trade-in time wanting more. I’ll admit to finding the folding model intriguing, as I’m pretty sure I could easily fit a couple of those things in my car’s trunk.

[Images: General Motors]

#Bikes #Branding #E-bikes #GeneralMotors #GM #Mobility

Steph Willems

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2 of 18 comments

Blackcloud_9 on Nov 05, 2018

EV1! It's electric (EV). Seats 1. Perfect

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Arach on Nov 05, 2018

No one mentioned that GM ALREADY SELLS BIKES?? I own a GMC Denali Bike. This one right here: https://www.amazon.com/GMC-92706-Denali-Road-Bike/dp/B002GNWPK2 Its not terrible for the price... but yes that the real GMC and its Denali branded... I enjoy telling everyone I have a GMC Denali. With that being said, I don't think this is a totally new world for them. I bought this like 10 years ago and they still sell 'em. They have a bunch of different bikes all undeer the GMC Denali name.

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Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
Redapple2 Love the wheels
Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.