GM Plans to Put Hybrid Engines in Family of Cars Starting in ’04
Scurrying to keep up in the battle for customers who want new vehicles to be environmentally friendly, General Motors Corp. will announce this morning that it intends to begin offering hybrid gasoline-electric power plants in a variety of models beginning with an all-new, car-based sport-utility vehicle in 2004.
The world’s largest auto maker is late to the race. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. of Japan already sell high-mileage, low-emissions hybrids in the U.S. And GM archrival Ford Motor Co., which already has set 2003 as the on-sale date for a hybrid version of its Escape small SUV, is expected to announce Wednesday a plan to offer a hybrid version of its best-selling Explorer in the next few years.
But GM would be among the first to offer customers a variety of hybrids, and it is expected to provide a system that boosts fuel economy by as much as 35% in a passenger car at no loss of power when compared with a conventional gasoline-engine version of the same vehicle. The system is expected to add about $1,500 to the price of a vehicle.
Additionally, GM’s system, using technology developed with its all-electric EV1 sports coupe, would use electric power for more of the vehicles’ propulsion than do other existing hybrid systems, a company insider said.
Ford’s decision to offer a hybrid Explorer could provide a tremendous boost to backers of the technology because of the SUV’s high volume. If just 10% of Explorer buyers opted for a gas-electric model, that would put 40,000 on the streets each year--and one source said Ford strategists are talking about a sales rate as high as 20% of total Explorer volume. GM says that it expects to sell about 7,000 of its new hybrids the first year, and that annual sales could soar to 100,000 units by 2010.
The formal announcements are to be made at the North American International Auto Show, where a coalition of environmental groups Sunday challenged the domestic Big Three auto makers to stop talking about hybrids and start producing them, as the two big Japanese manufacturers have.
“It is good that GM is now going to do it, but the numbers seem to be too little, and the timing too late,” Jason Mark, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ transportation program, said Monday. “The best news is that they are talking about multiple products, so consumers can have a choice. But so far as impact on the environment from fuel savings, we’d like to hear them talking about much larger numbers.”
Thad Malesh, who heads J.D. Power & Associates’ new alternative-energy automotive consulting group, said GM’s hybrids should sell well, especially in California, where awareness has been heightened by the Toyota and Honda models and by the state Air Resources Board’s mandate for sales of a small number of hybrids and zero-emissions vehicles beginning with the 2003 model year.
Many observers credit the California mandate for driving the timing of the auto makers’ plans for hybrids. Honda has said it would add a hybrid-powered Civic to its U.S. lineup as a 2002 model, and Toyota President Fujio Cho recently said his company would offer hybrid power plants in a variety of models as it determines there is sufficient consumer demand.
“So GM isn’t the first, and doing this won’t give it a leg up on the industry,” Malesh said. “But at least it will keep it competitive.” And that’s critical to a company that has steadily been losing market share for several decades.
GM’s plan, some of whose details were published Monday in USA Today, was confirmed Tuesday by Arv Mueller, head of GM’s powertrain division, and Ed Welburn, chief of the company’s concept vehicle design program. Both executives said the company is working on a platform for a family of vehicles--cars, small pickup trucks, minivans and SUVs--that would be able to use either hybrid power or conventional gasoline engines. (GM had earlier announced that it will employ a hybrid system for full-size pickups in 2004.)
Specifics about the proposed Ford system were unavailable, and details of GM’s remained sketchy.
Although the GM hybrid system initially would be used only in the new SUV, it could easily be adapted to other models, the executives said.
GM’s system uses a pair of electric motors in conjunction with either a six-cylinder or four-cylinder gasoline engine and would be available in vehicles employing all-wheel drive. It is expected to boost fuel economy in the initial SUV offering by about 20%--to 35 miles per gallon in highway driving--and to cut tailpipe emissions by about 20%.
By comparison, Honda claims 68 miles per gallon for its two-seat Insight hybrid coupe and Toyota 50 mpg for its five-passenger Prius hybrid sedan. Honda sold all 4,000 of the Insights it made for the U.S. last year and said it will boost production to 6,500 this year. Toyota expects to sell about 12,000 Priuses per year.
