GM Delays First Saturn Hybrid SUV Release Until 2007

DETROIT, Nov. 5 - "General Motors has delayed plans to sell a hybrid vehicle similar to the Toyota Prius by two years, until 2007, according to people close to the company's product development strategy. That means that Ford, which plans to sell a hybrid version of its Escape sport utility vehicle next year, will put a light-duty, Prius-style hybrid on the road about three years before its American rival. G.M. has previously laid out plans to offer fuel-saving electric technologies as options on as many as a dozen models this decade, if the demand for such vehicles materializes.

Most of the vehicles would reduce gasoline consumption 10 percent to 15 percent. The Prius saves 50 percent or more on fuel, though its performance can vary widely depending on how and where it is driven. G.M. has shifted away from a plan to offer a hybrid system similar to that in the Prius as an option on its Saturn Vue sport utility vehicle by 2005.

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G.M. declined to comment on its plans. Executives said privately that the company saw a better business case for hybrids on large S.U.V.'s and more potential for fuel savings by putting hybrids in the biggest gas guzzlers. The system on the Yukon and the Tahoe would probably reduce fuel consumption by about 30 percent while retaining the vehicles' towing ability. The shift is spurred by the company's most tangible hybrid program, which is building systems for buses. Last month, King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, said it would buy 235 buses outfitted with a G.M. hybrid system.

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The new plan for the Saturn Vue is to equip it with a small electric starter system that allows the engine to shut off at stops, as well as advanced transmission technology for overall fuel savings of 12 percent to 15 percent."

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EV World

I was going to buy one of those!!!!!!!!!!! (seriously)

"The new plan for the Saturn Vue is to equip it with a small electric starter system that allows the engine to shut off at stops, as well as advanced transmission technology for overall fuel savings of 12 percent to 15 percent."


That will put GM a full decade behind Toyota.

GM's Saturn offering will come out a full TEN YEARS after the production Prius went on the market in Japan.

More visionary business leadership from Detroit.

Odited fro spelllgin

I saw a television documentary recently on the decline and failure of Bethlehem Steel, once one of the premier industrial companies in the United States. It was all about the failure to embrace new technology.

We never learn.

The amazing plague of intransigent ludditism that infects their corporate boardrooms. They seem to pride themselves on being obstructionist and then they invariably have to play frantic catch-up. Had Henry Ford had the same intransigence towards new technology the horse and buggy industry would still be thriving.

It is disapppointing. I had hoped to get one of Saturn's all electric vehicles but of course they previously pulled those from distribution as well.

http://www.svcn.com/archives/sunnyvalesun/20030521/sv-news1.shtml

No matter Honda or Toyota it will be. Sad. All of the engineering and technological capacity we have in this country to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil, it is invariably stifled by rabid corporate obsession with preserving the dyng paradigm of the fossil fuel based internal combustion engine.

for a zero emmission vehicle. They learned, after the billion dollars, that zero emissions vehicles are a pipe dream at this point in time.

It was a fuel-saving concept on the Rabbit (or Golf, but I think it was the Rabbit).

Dammit, I don't want to get rid of the Durango until I can trade it in for a more Earth friendly SUV. I don't really care WHO builds it, I just want a vehicle that 1) Can pull at least 2000 pounds on a hitch. 2) Has at least 10" of ground clearance. 3) Has 4WD. 4) Gets 30MPG minimum. 5) Seats six.

Is that really too much to ask?

They stoped selling it a couple of years ago.

Dodge used to sell a Durango hybred. Not sure if they still do.

Also GM plans on selling a hybred version of the full sized pick up.
They found a pretty cool break through on combining the electric and regular fuel in a truck. It was published in a internal dealer news last year.

DC is still not sure just when and in what form it will be released.