General Motors Company (GM): Three Reasons The Buick Riviera Matters

GM’s press release describing the Riviera draws on some very Chinese images, noting that the car’s shape “has the vibrant nature of a moving river.” Clearly, it was designed with Chinese consumers’ tastes in mind.

And I think that’s what GM is really saying here: Upcoming new Buicks will draw on the Riviera’s design language — and they will have those Chinese consumers in mind as well.

Third, it’s a cool new kind of high-tech hybrid
It’s entirely possible that GM will produce a coupe called Riviera in coming years. It’s even possible that it will look quite a bit like this show car, though I’d be a little skeptical on that front.

But I’m not skeptical of the possibility that the Riviera’s drivetrain technology will find its way into mass production, and not necessarily just in Buicks. If you have any interest in green cars, this is pretty cool: General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has come up with a plug-in hybrid — a hybrid that can be charged up like an electric car and driven for a while without using any gas — that doesn’t need to be plugged in, though it can be.

Instead, the car recharges via a “sensory recharge panel” on the bottom: You drive it on to a special mat, and the car’s batteries recharge wirelessly. Keep the mat in your garage, and you don’t even have to think about recharging every night — it just happens.

That’s cool. That should play well in China, where high-tech car features draw lots of attention. And I bet that GM hopes to roll that idea out widely if the company can perfect it — and not just in China, and not just in Buicks.

The article 3 Reasons GM’s New Buick Riviera Matters originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Rosevear.

Fool contributor John Rosevear owns shares of Ford and General Motors. Follow him on Twitter at @jrosevear. The Motley Fool recommends Ford and General Motors and owns shares of Ford.

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