GM car that gives 80 miles a gallon

DETROIT: General Motors Corp on Saturday unveiled an experimental, tear drop-shaped sedan called the Precept, which is capable of getting 80 miles per gallon. Both the five-passenger Precept and the Prodigy by Ford Motor Co will make their official debuts at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens to the media on January 9. Ford provided the first glimpse of the Prodigy, which gets more than 70 miles per gallon, on December 29.

The cars were developed under the federally sponsored partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles PNGV. Members of the industry-government collaboration, launched in 1994, are committed to building by 2004 production-ready prototypes that can offer triple the fuel economy of a typical family sedan without sacrificing performance. Company officials say the Precept and Prodigy will probably never go into mass-production because of their high costs. But some of the advanced fuel-economy technology could wind up in consumer-ready cars and trucks.