GM's Bob Lutz Discusses Upcoming Plug-In Hybrids

Bob Lutz Being Interviewed Aside The Chevy Cruze








More GM news form NAIAS. Let's just hope that they actually deliver the goods and not more words.

From Detroit News:

General Motors still plans to build a plug-in hybrid but probably not until 2011 at the earliest, the company's vice chairman said today.

The first plug-in may be a GMC Terrain or Chevrolet Equinox said Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman.

GM showed off a concept plug-in hybrid Cadillac XTS platinum at the North American International Auto Show today.

He said the automaker will build a plug-in hybrid before it brings the Cadillac plug-in concept to market.

"There will be others that will launch before this," Lutz told reporters on the sidelines. Another GM official said the plug-in may not arrive until 2012.

GM's plug-in hybrid had a rocky road. GM announced in January 2008 it would build a Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid, but scrapped those plans last year when it decided to kill the Saturn brand.

Then in August, GM said it would build a yet-to-be-named Buick plug-in crossover vehicle. Eight days later, after negative reviews from customers, however, GM reversed course and canceled the Buick plug-in.

"That technology can and will be moved to something else. Think possibly Equinox or Terrain, but we're not ready to announce that or say when it's coming out," Lutz said. "One thing's for sure: We will have a wide array of plug-in hybrids."

Those vehicles figure into GM's plans to meet new fuel efficiency standards by 2016.

GM is launching its extended range Chevrolet Volt, which will travel up to 40 miles on electric power. But the plug-in vehicle uses different technology.

Lutz noted that the Volt, and other electric vehicles, requires mild weather for full range. Lutz said that on a cold day of around freezing, "you are going to see 28 or 30 miles" of range.

On a pure electric vehicle, drivers will have "to consult a temperature versus distance chart before you drive or you are going to be stuck," Lutz said.

GM explained its decision last year to kill the Buick plug-in.

"We were all struck by the consistency of the criticism," GM's vice chairman for global product development Tom Stephens wrote on a company blog last year. "It didn't fit the premium characteristics that customers have come to expect from Buick."

GM has said it plans to deliver 70 plug-in vehicles to the Energy Department for fleet testing in early 2011. It's unclear if the automaker still plans to do so. A GM spokesman didn't immediately now.

In an interview this week, Stephens said the plug-in would help boost fuel efficiency, especially during the first 25 miles of operation.

But automakers are still struggling to sell hybrids -- let alone more expensive plug-in hybrids expected in the coming years. In 2009, hybrids accounted for just 3 percent of U.S. auto sales.

Lutz said most Americans still aren't interested in hybrids.

"Despite everything you read in the press and see on television, there's only 5 percent of the people that are really interested in hybrids or who are interested in paying a lot of extra money to have better fuel consumption," he said.

"It's an important 5 percent, but it's still only 5 percent."

Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk said he didn't agree with GM's Volt strategy.

"I think it would have been better for GM to do a pure electric car -- an EV2 essentially... but the Volt is still far better than not taking any step in that direction."

Tesla said it had a lease for a production facility to build its Model S, but Musk wouldn't disclose the location. He said the company would start production on the vehicle in 24 to 30 months. Last year, Telsa won a $465 million low-cost government loan to produce the model in the United States.