Chevrolet VP Ed Peper

Recently celebrating their centennial, GM has been at the forefront of the American automobile industry for over 100 years. GM has been deeply woven into the fabric of American culture and history, most notably through their efforts to manufacture war machines for World War II and the introduction of several technologies that are commonplace in automobiles today. Over the course of their illustrious history GM enjoyed dominance as a global sales leader with sales so profitable they were able to be a leading provider of home mortgage financing through finance arm GMAC. What a difference a year makes. After a bankruptcy filing, government ownership and the sale or death of 4 brands, GM is poised to command dominance again. With only Buick, Cadillac, GMC, and Chevy remaining and over 2300 dealer franchises terminated or scheduled to do so by 2010, the success of any recovery plan will hinge on GM’s most popular Brand, Ed Peper, VP and General Manager of Chevy, has been at the helm of the Chevy brand for some time and he has great confidence in the products and consumer reaction sales wise. Of the newly launched 2010 Camaro, Ed stated, “Even in tough economic times we have all faced in the past several months we have over 10,000 bonafide orders and getting more every day for Camaro. It’s the 21st century sports car.” The 2010 Camaro, a star of the biggest summer blockbuster, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, has wowed critics and consumers alike with its styling and engineering. “[It’s] got great built-in technology,” Ed chimes with pride. The success of Camaro alone, however, would not be enough, so Chevy has an aggressive product launch schedule with the re-designed Equinox crossover, Volt extended-range sedan, Orlando crossover, Spark sub-compact, and Cruze compact car, all scheduled to launch by November of 2010. “Chevy in [and] of itself, we have to carry a lot of the sales and revenue for the company anywhere from 55-60%. That’s going to be even more as we get all these new products like Camaro, like Equinox, like Spark, like Orlando, and Volt. We are going to have to carry more of the load even more so for the company…We start building the Cruze in April next year and of course we are going to bring the Volt to market by November of 2010.” With almost $50 billion in government funding behind GM, one can conclude that a lot is riding on the shoulders of Ed Peper and the Chevy division, yet when you meet Ed you get a sense he is up to the task. His approach and philosophy is simple, “We build cars and trucks that people love and we build cars and trucks that have great styling; they have great fuel economy, and provide great value.” www.chevy.com