JAN 14

There was a lot of green buzz surrounding today's Saturn reveal at the GM stand. And the news, in short, goes like this.

The Saturn Vue is a small SUV with pretty good gas mileage for its class. A mild hybrid Vue has been on sale (and selling fairy well) for a couple years now. This BAS (belt, alternator, starter) hybrid system will save you about 20% on gas without much initial investment (as low as $800 depending on your state's subsidies) at the dealership.

But now, the Vue is getting electrified further. First, by Q4 2008 or Q1 2009, Saturn will be selling Vue 2-mode hybrids. The 2-mode system is GM's beefy hybrid. For a more significant investment, 2-mode vehicles are showing fuel economy improvements of around 50%. This year's "Green Car of the Year," the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, sports GM's 2-mode system.

And while that's some good news for 2009, the real news is that they're aiming to have a plug-in version of the 2-mode Vue on dealer lots by 2011. This would take fuel economy improvements from a mere 50% an actual doubling of the current non-hybrid Vue's mileage. GM's official position is that they are going to be the first car company with a plug-in hybrid running on the streets.

What they mean is that they hope that they will be the first major manufacturer with a plug-in hybrid. They're almost certainly going to be beat to the punch by the $80,000 Fisker Karma plug-in, and it's still possible that Toyota could surprise us with a plug-in Prius. However, at this point, that's starting to look more and more unlikely.

Note: GM paid for my hotel and travel to the Detroit Auto Show.

Comments (6)

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written by Matt, January 16, 2008

Why does it take 3-4 years to add a freakin' plug to a car?

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Seriously - 4 years
written by Chris, January 22, 2008

I agree with Matt, why does it take 3-4 years to recharge a battery. That's ridiculous - the auto industry is so slow.

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Infrastructure
written by Kyle, January 24, 2008

It'll take 4 years at least to get our grid up to date enough to handle millions of ignorant environmentalists plugging in these things and burning a bunch of coal or making some radioactive waste at some power plant.
Out of sight, out of mind right?

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Economy of Scale
written by Jon, January 28, 2008

Kyle: while electric vehicles do essentially just move their tailpipes to a central power plant, this scheme is still less harmful to the environment than current internal-combustion engines. Due to economies of scale, even if the source of an electric vehicle's power is the filthiest coal-burning plant in America, it is still cleaner and more efficient to run that car off of that electrical power than it is for the car to house its own fossil-fuel-burning power-plant. And if your local utility company lets you opt to get your household electricity from clean windmill generators (an option in more and more communities around the country) then your car will barely be polluting at all. That's the clean, oil-free future we should all be working toward.

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Reduce dependence on foreign oil
written by Ty, May 07, 2008

Also, using coal or nuclear, while still not the perfect solution, at least gets us OFF of foreign oil. Only about 5% of our national electric power comes from oil. We have oodles of domestic coal available, and we can burn it cleanly with sequestering. And nuclear power can bridge the gap (probably 40 or 50 years) until we can improve renewable energy production like solar, geothermal, etc.

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King of the Internets
written by MJ Snodz, May 07, 2008

The Sierra Club has fought minimal drilling offshore and Alaska for decades. Now we have food shortages and starvation in the third world and 5 dollar a gallon gas. Will they take the credit/Blame? Doubtful.

Coal is dirty, but politically better connected than enviros.
Nuclear and Solar will get us off the addiction to oil, will the radical left fight it? Of course they will!

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