New baby Chevy hits the right beat

Could this be the world's most democratic car? After a year long vote, the Beat supermini concept is to go into production.

The small car was first unveiled at last year’s LA Auto Show alongside two other concepts – the Groove and the Traxx . Company bosses then asked the public to vote on which of the trio of models they would like to see in showrooms.

A total of 1.9 million people completed the firm’s online poll over the course of 12 months. Eventually the Beat came out on top, with almost 900,000 votes - 100,000 more than either of the others.

GM’s Vice President of Product Development Bob Lutz joked: “We are glad the Beat won, it was our favourite too. If it hadn’t been so popular with the public we would have had to get all of our staff to vote for it to make sure it came out on top! Thankfully we didn’t have to resort to this.”

Expect the finished article to hit the streets late next year.