GM to Speed Decision on Mini Car for U.S.

General Motors Corp. said it is giving a higher priority to deciding whether it will bring the next-generation Chevrolet Beat mini car -- a vehicle it sells overseas -- to the U.S. market in the 2012 timeframe.

Such a move would increase the stakes on GM's bet the U.S. market is undergoing historic change.

GM

The Chevrolet Beat finished first in online voting by 1.8 million people world-wide on three General Motors mini-car concepts.

GM is conducting major surgery on the product plans it had set for the next decade, scrambling to react to falling demand for vehicles that consume a relatively large amount of gasoline. The next generation of GM mini cars, on which the Beat is based, is slated to debut in several global markets in coming years and should be capable of at least 40 miles per gallon.

"We always thought we'd do it at some point, but now it obviously enjoys a much higher priority," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz wrote in an email. GM's U.S. sales were down 16% in the first half of the year, and the auto maker can't move fast enough to meet demand for its smallest, most fuel-efficient cars.

"The reality is that our future depends on selling a lot of small cars," David Sabolsky, sales manager of a Spitzer Chevrolet in North Jackson, Ohio, said. "They're going to be forced to come up with something like [the Beat] for this market."

GM is one of several players looking to eventually enter a mini-car segment that currently is almost nonexistent. Daimler AG's Smart cars are the only serious mini cars on the market, having gone on sale earlier this year, and thus far have shattered expectations.

Smart cars struggle to even fill half of a conventional parking space and are much smaller than BMW AG's stylish Mini products, for example.

Smart's sales through the first half hit 11,400 in the U.S., putting the company well on track to shatter the initial target of 16,000 sales in the first year. Initially a hit in trendy, coastal metro areas, Smart U.S.A. is now putting dealerships in cities like Tulsa, Okla., and Omaha, Neb. The company said buyers are using the cars as their primary mode of transportation.

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it has no plans on the table to bring its micro-sized Ka mini car to the U.S., but it is monitoring the success that Smart is having.

"We have small cars on the shelf all around the world," Ford spokesman Jay Ward said. "If at some point we decide to bring [the Ka] over here, we would be in a position to do so."

Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@dowjones.com