Dubai Auto Show Diary Day Three - GM goes Green in the Middle East? - Ask Patty

General Motors held a press conference Monday November 11th, 2007 at the Madinat Jumierah Arena meeting rooms to show off the Tahoe Hybrid to the Middle East. GM also previewed their road map to energy diversity and described how they plan to reduce dependency on oil, build more vehicles that have a lower impact on the environment, and create less emissions overall.

John Ferris: E-Flex Program Planning Manager and Mike Duhamie: Chief Engineer of Advanced Hybrids for GM fielded some pretty heated questions after their informative presentation. Think about the reaction from this group of 50-plus media and press positioned dead center in the area of the world that produces the lion's share of crude oil for fuel products.

Here are a few of the more challenging questions from the Middle East Media and Press:

1. Is the Chevy Volt electric car REAL technology that will go into production?

2. Where does diesel fit into the GM road map?

3. Is a solar-powered vehicle on the GM road map?

4. With much of electricity generated by oil-driven generators, how does an electric plug-in vehicle
reduce the carbon footprint and reduce emissions and dependency of oil?

And the real banger question was: Is GM trying to displace the oil industry with electric vehicles?

Someone from the Middle East press HAD to ask this one....and the answer was no from GM. I think the press in their flurry today over this hot topic forgot that PEOPLE will need to buy, drive and/or replace around 800 million cars in the world today with electric/hybrid or other fuel efficient designs before oil-based-fuel driven vehicles become obsolete. This would take a while so the oil companies can relax. 1.2 billion is the estimated number of vehicles on the planet by 2030 and the percent of electric cars will depend on the buyers not the producers.

And how will expats living in Dubai and in other Middle East countries react to eco-friendly vehicles. I met a self professed "Jumeirah Jane" yesterday and The Construction Blogspot of Dubai describes her as a woman of European / American / South African / Australian / New Zealand / (insert 50 other countries here) origin, which usually drives either;

* A gas guzzling SUV
* A gas guzzling Mercedes
* A gas guzzling BMW
* A gas guzzling (insert other expensive brand here)

They travel by car for several hours to the most inconvenient shopping locations in Dubai, usually hold memberships to one or more overly expensive beach/health clubs, fill their days with the ludicrously difficult task of driving 3 minutes down the road and picking up children from school in said gas guzzling vehicle, spend at least 3 hours a day on sites like expatmum.com or britishexpats.com, and the other 21 hours writing letters to newspapers under the alias of Maria complaining about the "extreme" levels of noise coming from the construction site across the road from the extremely underpaid laborers which ruined their coffee morning with other said Jumeirah Janes.

Dubai is plagued with a cloud of smog due to heavy traffic and the fast increase in the number of vehicles, which contributes to terrible traffic problems as well. YUK, reminds me of Los Angeles before they cleaned up their act. Will Jumeirah Jane buy the Chevy Hybrid or other eco-friendly vehicles?

GM's Vice president of Design for North America, Ed Welburn, gave a press conference on what is happening with the GM global design teams and eluded to projects the secret Design Studio X team has worked on including such secret projects as designing top government security clearance only presidential limos. He also shared how he has multiple design teams within GM compete against each other to come up with the best new model designs.

On display was the 2008 Cadillac CTS, the Chevy Camaro Concept, and a 1953 Cadillac Deville, (pictured). Ed shared the vision GM has using the following adjectives: craftsmanship, refinement, strong, edgy, sophisticated, dramatic, angular, flair, bolder, warmer interiors, competitive, emotional, fuel efficient , aero dynamic, fashionable, and trend setters.

I chatted with Ed Welburn (who owns a Classic 1969 Yellow Camaro and does drive it to work from time to time) and he had quite a bit to say about keeping the new design production model close to the concept vehicle. His passion about the pending introduction of the all-new Camaro really came through brilliantly. Ed Loves Camaros and can't wait to get this vehicle onto showroom floors! I took a test drive of the Camaro a few months back and bet this one will be a winner, especially for classic car lovers as this will give Camaro lovers the best of both worlds. ( '69 Camaro and new Camaro concept pictured).

We were all treated to a lovely buffet luncheon featureing Dubai's popular choice foods with seating on the patio at the Madinat Jumierah Arena Center. I met three fascinating women who run popular Middle East women's magazines that came to cover the auto show. Pictured: Neven M. El-Shater of Kuwaits’ Alyaqza Magazine, Jocelyne Aouad of Lebanon's Mondanite Magazine, and Siham Tuni of Lebanon’s Noun Magazine and chatted with several Middle East dealership employees and GM people about their operations and how the Middle Eastern philosophy and challenges of working with their customers.

Just for fun

Gold: Dubai’s most famous market of all is the gold souk, where narrow streets are lined with shop windows glinting with bracelets, necklaces, and earrings in 18-, 21-, and 22-karat gold. Bars of 24 karat in any form and weight, and bullion coins in 22- and 24-karat are also available. Prices are very reasonable and largely determined by weight, rather than design and craftsmanship so after lunch I had a bit of free time and took a city tour stopping at the local Dubai Harley dealership to shop for some gifts to take home and made my way to the gold souk to look and shop for 22-karat-gold jewelry. There is no sales tax here, a shopper’s paradise!

I want to share some photos taken of some of the beautiful mosques here, too.