Posted on Thursday 21 February 2008
After watching BMW reap profits in the premium minicar segment with its Mini range for years, rival carmakers are now rushing to develop small runabouts to capture their own part of the lucrative market. Volkswagen Group has already shown us the Audi A1 Metroproject and VW up! concepts, and Fiat’s launched its 500 minicar to great success, and now GM is just weeks away from revealing its Saab 9-1 Concept at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.
According to latest reports, the 9-1 isn’t the only minicar GM is planning. Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport claims GM will have two premium minicars, the Saab version and reskinned model for Saturn in North America. The production 9-1 will be available with Saab’s first hybrid system, which will be available as soon as the car is launched, and it will be sold as a global model. There aren’t many details surrounding the Saturn model but according to the source it will feature a removable roof and could be available with the same hybrid drive system.
GM also plans to launch a budget minicar designed by GM Daewoo in South Korea. This car will be based on the Beat concept from last year’s New York Auto Show and will be sold as a global model.
I’m a bit confused with all these premium hatchbacks. The A3, 1 Series and C30 are of course compact cars (small family cars / C-segment). The 500 and the future up! are minicars (city cars / A-segment), the A1 and A-Class are subcompacts cars (superminis / B-segment) and the Mini something between both.
But Saturn has just released the Astra, which is a comapct car, and it’s been said that the 9-1 will be a compact car. So… either the Saab is smaller, or Saturn will have two simlarly sized models, or the design will allow size changes.