GM Could Revive HPVO

General Motors, the American giant that last year has felt down on its knees and begged for government money to stay alive, is showing signs of recovery. So many signs that the company is pondering several major steps to get back in the game and re-become the great automaker that used to be before the crisis. Besides the fact that it looks into ways to bring Chevrolet back in IndyCar, it appears that GM is also pondering a potential revival of its very own internal performance division.

In other words, the so-called High Performance Vehicle Operations (HPVO) unit that went offline in February 2009 in a move to cut costs might be brought back to life. The reason? GM wants to expand its range and get closer to their customers, offering them exactly the models they'd expect from its four core brands.

At the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show this week, GM displayed several models, including the Z-Spec Chevrolet Cruze, Volt and Spark cars, and two SS-badged Chevrolet Camaros. Chris Perry, vice president of Chevrolet marketing, told Autonews that the company's SEMA display is actually the first sign that General Motors is re-becoming interested in performance brands and hinted that HPVO might be revived, in one form or another.

“Right now we don’t have a performance sub-brand in us,” Perry said in an interview. “For now it might not be a sub-brand. It might be initiatives around parts and accessories.”

“There’s a lot of passion around the Chevrolet brand. A woman here had a Chevy bowtie tattoo on her neck,” added Perry. “There is a latent fondness we have to ignite. Is building a performance parts business the way to do that? Maybe.”