Los Angeles motor show - Chevrolet Volt and Beat

General Motors aims to make its blue-collar Chevrolet brand the 'worldwide leader for alternative fuel solutions'.

With annual global sales of around five million cars and a range that extends from tiny city runabouts to large pick-up trucks and 4x4s, it is seen as the ideal brand to spread the clean-car message to all corners of the world.

Those solutions will vary from continent to continent, says Bob Lutz, GM's head of product development.

Petrol- and diesel-electric hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, engines which run on plant-based bio-ethanol and plug-in electric city cars are all part of the plan.

'There is no silver bullet; no 100mpg carburettor; no secret solution that will solve all our problems overnight,' says Lutz. 'We are working on the challenges from many different angles at the same time.'

In Europe, the answer could rest with the Volt and Flextreme commuter concept cars revealed at the Detroit and Frankfurt motor shows earlier this year.

They are built on the platform that will underpin the next Vauxhall Astra family.

Both rely solely on electric power and can be topped up by plugging into low-cost mains electricity overnight, but they would have small petrol or diesel engines acting as generators to recharge the cars' battery packs on the move when longer journeys are necessary.

'We're working furiously to make Volt a reality,' says Lutz. 'This is as big a shift as we saw a hundred years ago when we moved from the horse and carriage to the horseless carriage.'

Lutz also announced that the stylish three-door Beat concept unveiled at the New York show in April will go into production in South Korea 'in the near future' – but that the five-door Groove revealed with it may also be built.

The two cars finished close in an online poll asking people which they would most like to be able to buy.