GM looking for a jolt from electric power

Then, as soon as 2010, GM will offer a plug-in version of the Vue Green Line two-mode hybrid. This vehicle will be very similar to the two-mode model to be offered this year, with the substitution of its nickel metal hydride batteries with lithium-ion batteries and the addition of a cord to plug the Vue into electric outlets.

This plug-in vehicle promises the ability to drive as far as 10 miles at around-town speeds on electric-only power. Plugging in the Vue could let it burn half as much fuel as any SUV on the road today, Wagoner said.

Key to selling plug-in hybrids is the development of safe and durable lithium-ion batteries, which are not currently available. GM plans to start testing these batteries in vehicles by June, in preparation for manufacturing, according to Denise Gray, director of energy storage systems for GM. While the batteries still aren’t ready for prime time, the development engineers are getting promising results from testing.

“So far, so good,” she said. “We were hoping some of the data would come out the way that it did.”

Key to the development effort is learning whether the batteries will be able to deliver the desired ability to propel a car 40 miles between charges even in mountainous terrain and in cold weather when electric power would be needed to heat the cabin and defrost windows, she said.

Still farther along the development arc is the Saturn Flextreme, a crossover wagon concept vehicle that uses GM’s E-Flex hybrid electric powertrain first introduced in the Chevrolet Volt. This design uses electric motors exclusively to propel the vehicle, with a supplementary powerplant to charge the batteries when needed.

In the Flextreme — which was first seen as an Opel concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Europe, where diesels are very popular — a 1.3-liter diesel four-cylinder engine charges the batteries. The Chevy Volt, which the company hopes to bring to market in 2010, will use more conventional gasoline power.

The ultimate iteration of the E-Flex architecture uses a hydrogen fuel cell as the source of on-board power to charge the batteries, and at the Detroit show GM showed its plans for that with the Cadillac Provoq Concept.

The Provoq, which presages the styling of the crossover SUV that will likely replace the current Cadillac SRX as a 2010 model, is a good candidate to later become GM’s first commercially available fuel-cell vehicle. That’s because the crossover body style has enough room to hold the bulky hydrogen fuel tanks and because as a pricey premium model, its customers can bear the added expense of a fuel cell powertrain replacing the gas engine.

In preparation for the eventual sale of such vehicles to customers, GM is conducting a field test of a fleet of fuel cell Chevrolet Equinox crossover SUVs this year, when consumers who have been selected from an online application process get the chance to use the company’s small fleet of prototype vehicles for a few months in everyday driving.

“Just to be perfectly clear,” Wagoner said, “GM will continue to drive the development of electrically driven vehicles, our E-Flex propulsion system, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell technology with all the speed we can muster.”

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