When the paper ran the story, GM apparently responded, claiming to understand that there was an “emotional debate” to the name useage, and embracing use of the nickname by customers…as well as admitting that the memo was not well-written. While the note was not signed by GM’s new marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, formerly of Nissan, but it was signed by Alan Batey, vice president of Chevrolet sales and service, and Jim Campbell, the division’s vice president of marketing.

The text of the memo is, in part:

“We’d ask that, whether you’re talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertising or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet moving forward …

“When you look at the most recognized brands throughout the world, such as Coke or Apple, for instance, one of the things they all focus on is the consistency of their branding … Why is this consistency so important? The more consistent a brand becomes, the more prominent and recognizable it is with the consumer.”

After the Times noted that “Coke” is short for “Coca-Cola” and cited an expert’s opinion that the GM initiative was counter to the trend of casual branding (i.e. KFC for Kentucky Fried Chicken), Autoblog also got into the fray, stating, “We feel that the Coke comparison GM uses in the memo is ultimately rather apt, given that the idea of memory-holing ‘Chevy’ as part of some absurd branding exercise seems destined to be a failure on the level of New Coke.”

GM, in turn, responded, “We love Chevy. In no way are we discouraging customers or fans from using the name. We deeply appreciate the emotional connections that millions of people have for Chevrolet and its products. In global markets, we are establishing a significant presence for Chevrolet, and need to move toward a consistent brand name for advertising and marketing purposes. The memo in question was one step in that process.”

The perfect cap to this story? There’s a postscript to the memo which mentions a plastic can in the hallway and says, “Every time someone uses ‘Chevy’ rather than Chevrolet,” an employee is expected to pay a quarter.

But brand consistency should begin at home, and, as Automotive News points out:

GM’s own Twitter page says “Talking Chevy One Tweet at a Time.” It has also sponsored links on Google driving folks to the Web site by calling it “The Official Chevy Site.”

In addition, the URL “chevy.com” redirects Web users to the full brand name.

That’s going to add up to a LOT of quarters…

The Silicon Valley-based company has joined with Ford, GM and Smart to provide both home and public ChargePoint Network stations in nine metropolitan areas around the country. The roll-out will begin with fall, coinciding with the launch of the Ford Transit Connect delivery van and Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric vehicle.

Most major auto companies are currently developing “cars with cords,” with the first of them to be on showroom floors by year’s end, but the ongoing question is where drivers of these electric vehicles will be able to charge them if they live in apartments (where a charging station can’t be installed) or aren’t at home. With the Obama administration pushing us toward EVs, this issue is hardly trivial.

The program, called ChargePoint America, has a pricetag of $37 million, and is being partially funded by a $15 million grant issued by the Department of Energy via the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (aka the ’stimulus package’). It joins another effort, led by Nissan and Ecotality to the tune of $99.8 million, to bring 11,200 chargers to five states.

Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb told the press, “The Obama Administration has set significant and considerable goals for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the coming years. These charging stations will build upon our already growing and established network of infrastructure and will accelerate the deployment of public and private charging infrastructure, which will in turn encourage people to buy electric vehicles.”

The free charges are destined for Austin, Texas; Detroit; Los Angeles; New York; Orlando, Florida; Sacramento, California; the San Francisco Bay Area; Redmond, Washington; and Washington D.C.. They are all “Level 2″ (220 volt) units and roughly half will be installed in curbside locations and other public places. The rest will be given to consumers who purchase electric vehicles from General Motors, Smart, or Ford.

Coulomb plans to install a thousand chargers by the end of this year, with the rest to be in place by the end of 2011. As BMW discovered when field-testing it’s Mini-E electrics, getting the proper permits can be a nightmare, so Coulomb is working with the cities included in the program in order to cut through as much red tape as possible. While the chargers themselves are free, those receiving them must foot the installation bill.

The ChargePoint stations are network-capable, and can be configured to enable energy usage tracking. As well, they can be configured to bill users so that host-businesses can recoup maintenance and energy costs to offset public charging.

GM’s Opel unit, along with BMW is testing a system in Eurpope that can read the information from traffic signs, and send that data directly to the person behind the wheel. The driver would be informed about the current speed limit for the road, as well as other warning signs, according to Jim Federico, chief of GM’s midsize cars lineup. As any traffic cop will tell you, it’s the oldest excuse in the world: “Officer, I didn’t see the sign.” Whether true or not, General Motors has a technology on the horizon that could end the excuse — and save some lives.

GM’s Opel unit, along with BMW, is trying out a system in Europe that can read traffic signs and relay the information directly to drivers in the car. It tells drivers the speed limit on any road, and informs them of other warning signs as well, says Jim Federico, GM’s chief of its midsize cars lineup. It sounds pretty cool, but DriveOn’s Chris Woodyard says the system still has some kinks – specifically, it’s having issues reading digital signs, but as drivers in the European test market bring their vehicles in for service, the system can be upgraded with better sign recognition software.

This technology will eventually be introduced here in the United States, but timing hasn’t been nailed down yet.

TGC already produces hydrogen and synthetic natural gas, and will use its 1,000-mile utility pipeline system to help establish the fueling stations.

Charles Freese, executive director of GM Global Fuel Cell Activities said in a statement to the press, “This is the type of enabler that a hydrogen transportation infrastructure needs because it addresses both the source of the hydrogen and a feasible way to deliver it for fuel cell vehicle use. The Hawaii infrastructure could eventually support tens of thousands of fuel cell vehicles.”

The state of Hawaii has already committed to reducing its petroleum consumption by seventy percent over the next several years, and a new hydrogen fueling infrastructure is likely to play a significant part in meeting that goal, but right now, only a single hydrogen-powered vehicle – a modified Chevrolet Equinox leftover from GM’s Project Driveway initiative – exists on the island of Oahu.

Jim Campbell, U.S. vice preside for Chevrolet marketing shared in a statement, “We thank Campbell-Ewald for their many years of dedicated and loyal service on the Chevrolet brand and for the many campaigns such as See the USA in your Chevrolet, The Heartbeat of America, Like a Rock and American Revolution.” He continued, “Over the coming months we will transition the business to Publicis Worldwide, which has recently been handling our car and crossover brands.”

Campbell-Ewald has been working with Chevy since 1919, and after doing initial work on the brand became the agency of record in 1922. This makes Chevrolet the ad company’s oldest and largest account, but last year, GM allowed other agencies to tackle some of the work for the Chevrolet brand, and the accounts for the Malibu, Equinox, and Traverse were moved to the American offices of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA, which owns Worldwide.

Campbell-Ewald, which began doing business this year under the new label “C-E” is owned by Interpublic Group, and is based in Detroit.

Source: Automotive News.

According to GM spokesman Alan Adler, its vehicles either have brakes strong enough to allow a stop within 554 feet when traveling at 60 mph, or have override systems. Models sporting brake overrides already include the Cadillac CTS-V and STS-V, the Chevrolet Corvette, Camaro V8, Malibu L4, Colorado V8, Cobalt and HHR, and the GMC Canyon V8. He also said that adding the overrides to more of his company’s models will require the activation of a GM-developed algorithm that each vehicle’s brake system already includes.

In a statement to the press, GM Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said that installing this technology would give extra reassurance to consumers. Adding brake-overrides will also help GM be better prepared for any regulatory changes that may be caused by the aftermath of Toyota’s issues. Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that his agency may propose mandatory brake-override systems on all new vehicles. At that time only GM and Honda, among all major auto manufacturers, were without such systems – or firm plans to implement them – in their vehicles.

Automotive News reports that Toyota has issued a statement as well, stating that it will be installing brake-overrides on seven current models, and will introduce the system on all models for the American market by next year. Currently, about one-fifth of the U.S. Toyota vehicles sport this technology.

According to the folks at LeftLaneNews, GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has stated that while his company used to build cars to fill segments without paying much attention to details, causing customers to turn to brands like Honda and Toyota instead, the recent “product renaissance” at the automaker has recaptured consumer interest, and the Detroit-based company is now working hard to maintain customer satisfaction.

One of GM’s strategies to keeping customers happy is to monitor social media. Specifically, a new customer service team was formed last year, shortly after the automaker had emerged from bankruptcy. This team’s job is to surf the Web, looking for negative comments about GM products – they primarily look at sites like Facebook and Twitter – and offer solutions whenever possible.

Scott Lawson, GM’s director of customer and relationship services explained to the Detroit Free Press, “In the old GM, we said you need to call us or you need to write us a letter. That’s not treating [customers] how they want to be treated. In the new GM, we’re going to be where our customers want us to be.”

Using five call centers around the United States, GM communicates with more than 25,000 dealers and customers every day, and the automaker is planning to double its social media efforts next month. The company is also beginning to integrate the use of automated systems into the program, in order to enhance its monitoring capabilities.

So far, GM’s efforts appear to be working: since the program was implemented, customer satisfaction rates have been steadily improving.

Those tax credits were part of a national program offering clean vehicle incentives beginning in 2005, and provided up to $3,400 each for 60,000 buyers per automaker, before a 16-month phase-out period. When Ford reached 60,000 hybrids sold sometime before April 1, 2009, that meant that as of April 1, 2010 there are no tax credits left for any Ford Hybrids. Other automakers – specifically BMW, General Motors, Mercedes, and Volkswagen, still have credits left for the purchase of hybrids and clean diesel vehicles, but most of those brands sell only low volumes of hybrids, with the possible exception of Volkwagen’s Jetta TDI.

Currently, hybrids account for less than 3% of the new car market, which means analysts and advocates of the green car market are left wondering if hybrid tax credits have been phased out too early in the process. As the folks at HybridCars point out:

After a decade in the market, hybrids have become more commonplace and therefore, with tax credits and other incentives, could reach a much larger part of the mainstream market. Incentives could encourage automakers and consumers to put millions of high-mpg low-emission hybrids on the road—the original goal of the tax credits.

Instead of doing more work to encourage the purchase of very viable hybrid vehicles, however, most legislators have jumped on the newest tech bandwagon: electric cars, and plug-in hybrids. There now exists a combination of local and national credits including up to $7,500 federal dollars plus a $2,000 for the installation of charging equipment, in addition to state-based incentives, which are available to private buyers of green electric-drive vehicles.

So, what’s the problem? First, these vehicles are not yet available to the general public, and when they do come on the market later this year, even with tax credits they will be very expensive, and not very numerous. While some see this as a good reason for generous tax credits, others point out that the first wave of consumers to buy these cars are those who would likely do so without any tax credits, because they believe in the cause, and the viability of plug-in cars. Meanwhile, mainstream buyers who might consider a hybrid purchase with a bit of a nudge, won’t receive one.

What does this mean for the future? Some analysts believe that we could be looking at a several year gap in the right incentives for the right buyers of greener cars and trucks.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created to oversee Treasury’s spending of funds frokm the Troubled Asset Relief Program said, “The panel is deeply concerned that Treasury has not required GMAC to lay out a clear path to viability or a strategy for fully repaying taxpayers.” The panel also suggested that Treasury might wish to consider breaking up GMAC and merging the company’s automotive finance department back into General Motors, Co.

Such a move would restore GM’s financing operations to a model used by many other automakers, the panel, which is headed by Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren, said in its statement. Its report also said that GMAC lost $8.3 billion on its mortgage business last year, which represents more than 80% of its total net losses.

In a respone issued by GMAC, the company said, “We appreciate the panel’s responsibility to analyze history; however, GMAC’s management team is focused on the future. That includes continuing to provide the highest level of service to auto dealers and consumers in support of our auto partners, returning GMAC to a high level of profitability, and repaying the U.S. Treasury.”

Also addressing the issue was the Treasury Department itself, which released a statement saying, “Treasury continues to be a reluctant shareholder and to manage its investment in GMAC in a hands-off commercial manner consistent with the administration’s established principles that guide Treasury’s management of financial interests in private firms.”

Addressing previous decisions not to restructure GMAC, Treasure said, “After considerable analysis and deliberation, Treasury viewed the course taken as the least costly and least disruptive of all the options available.” Treasury maintains that support of GMAC was necessary because of the company’s dominant role in floorplan financing and that failure to do so would have undermined the government’s investments in the auto industry.

According to Automotive News reporters:

The congressional panel found that the government missed chances to increase accountability and ensure repayment of taxpayers’ money with its early decisions to rescue GMAC rather than pursue other options as part of a broader auto industry bailout.