GM FYI Blog

By Frank Saucedo
Director of GM Advance Design
GM Advance Studio California

This is a great day for our design team here in North Hollywood, Calif. I don’t want to sound boastful — because the team is much more than me — but this is a two-peat for us at The L.A. Design Challenge. Last year, we won for our GMC Pad concept. We’re thrilled with the win.

Just yesterday, the entry from our GM Design colleagues, Steve Anderson, José Paris and Jussi Timonen, was honored as the winner of the 2006 L.A. Design Challenge. The competition was tough — from Acura to Volkswagen.

Their concept falls in line with the environmental theme we’ve been highlighting each day at the Los Angeles Auto Show — it’s all about the reinvention of the automobile and putting our best design, engineering and technology into vehicles that enhance people’s lives and the environment.

The team asked the question: “If the typical Los Angeles automobile spends 95 percent of its time outdoors, why can’t that same car give back to the environment?”

With that guiding premise, the team created a vehicle that answered that question.

This is a biomass vehicle that could potentially result in a “net gain” for the environment. It’s hard to imagine, but the vehicle’s carbon footprint could actually help reduce the total impact on our environment.

So how does it work? The panels on the vehicle work like leaves on a tree. They would exchange oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. Oil changes would be replaced by annual algae replacement. How cool is that?

Another big idea here is that all the materials in the vehicle are post-consumer recyclables.

We’ll be back next year with a lot of hard work and maybe with a little luck we’ll make it a three-peat!