FLASH: GM hopes to have a PHEV at Detroit Auto Show
Jun 23, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)

Bloomberg reports A GM PHEV prototype in January with commercial
production perhaps as soon as a year: we've been focusing on Toyota
and Ford, but GM needs this most. The story is getting picked up
widely. Below is the new agency's third revision, with comments from
many sources, including CalCars (though no credit to EnergyCS for their car).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology
/chi-060623gm-hybrid-story,1,7449504.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

GM plans gas-electric car, people say
By Jeff Green
Bloomberg News Published June 23, 2006, 12:07 PM CDT

General Motors Corp., losing sales to fuel-efficient cars from Toyota
Motor Corp., is developing a hybrid-electric vehicle with a battery
that recharges at any outlet, said GM officials familiar with the plan.

The so-called plug-in hybrid would travel more than 60 miles on a
gallon of gasoline, said the people, who asked not to be identified
because the research is secret. GM, which had the first modern
electric car in 1996, lags behind Toyota in hybrids, which combine
electric motors and gasoline engines.

A 28 percent rise in U.S. gasoline prices this year helped boost
sales of Toyota's gasoline-electric models 37 percent, giving the
Japanese automaker almost three-fourths of U.S. retail hybrid sales.
GM doesn't make competing vehicles now. Automakers are trying to
raise fuel efficiency as U.S. lawmakers consider tougher requirements
for cars and trucks.

``There is rising regulatory demand and consumer demand for improved
fuel economy and lower emissions,'' said John Casesa, an auto analyst
at New York-based Casesa Shapiro Group LLC. ``There's a lot of
pressure to show you're responsive.''

The plug-in designs GM is testing may be ready in time for the
Detroit auto show in January, the people said. Any commercial
production is at least a year away, they said. The people declined to
say how much the company is investing.

Chris Preuss, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, declined to comment
on any plans for a plug-in hybrid.

Demand for Toyota's hybrids, including the Prius, has helped the
company boost U.S. sales 8.8 percent in the year through May compared
with a 8 percent drop at GM. GM's shares fell 22 percent in the past
12 months compared with a 39 percent gain in Toyota's U.S. shares.

Toyota doesn't plan to relax its leadership in hybrids, Jim Press
said today by phone from Toyota City, Japan, where he's being
confirmed as North American chief at Toyota's annual shareholders meeting.

``Hybrid isn't an alternative. It will be the heart of most of
everything we drive,'' he said. ``There will be diesel hybrids,
advanced gasoline hybrids, fuel-cell hybrids, ethanol hybrids.''

In response to lower sales, GM is shutting factories. More than
35,000 GM and Delphi Corp. hourly workers have told the companies
they plan to retire early or take a buyout offer, the Wall Street
Journal reported, citing union officials.

Shares of GM fell 38 cents to $26.89 at 11:15 a.m. in New York Stock
Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 38 percent this year
on optimism that financial results will improve as plants are closed
and new models go on sale.

Plug-in hybrids recharge when the vehicle isn't in use and switch to
the gasoline engine when the batteries are drained. Automakers quit
making cars powered solely by batteries in the late 1990s because
they were expensive and needed recharging for as long as six hours to
travel 75 miles.

``I'm absolutely thrilled that GM is looking at this,'' said Felix
Kramer, founder of the Palo Alto-based California Cars Initiative,
which adds plug-in technology to existing hybrids. ``They could go
right to the front of the pack with this.''

Kramer said he added a plug-in conversion to his Prius and is getting
the equivalent of 100 miles a gallon gasoline mileage. He can travel
as much as 30 miles in slow-speed traffic without using the gasoline engine.

Regular hybrids use friction from braking and power from the engine
to recharge the battery for the electric motor. The motor is used at
start-up and lower speeds, and the engine powers the vehicle at higher speeds.

``Range is not an issue with a plug-in hybrid because you always have
the engine if you need it,'' said Bruce Belzowski, assistant research
scientist at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

Fuel economy will significantly exceed 60 miles per gallon, the
people said, declining to be specific. Toyota's Prius, the
best-selling hybrid, is rated at 55 mpg in combined city and highway
driving. The Prius doesn't use plug-in technology.

DaimlerChrysler AG already is testing a plug-in hybrid version of its
Sprinter commercial van in the U.S. The automaker said in March that
it would test 40 of the Sprinters, which can go as far as 20 miles on
electric power only.

GM has a hard choice on ``hybrid and fuel-cell research versus
current product development,'' said Brian Bruce, who helps manage
about $18 billion at PanAgora Asset Management in Boston, including
the automaker's shares. ``If they spend too little on current
development, there might not be much of a company going forward. If
they spend too little on future development, they could arrive in the
future with nothing competitive.''

Toyota, which is second to GM in vehicle sales, is spending a record
920 billion yen ($7.9 billion) on research and development this year.
GM spent $6.7 billion last year and hasn't released a 2006 figure.

The Japanese automaker said it's studying plug-in technology. The
Toyota City-based company has no immediate plans for a plug-in
vehicle because of the much larger battery needed, President Katsuaki
Watanabe said last week.

Toyota said June 13 that it plans to double its hybrid models to 14
by early in the next decade and sell 1 million of the vehicles
annually as early as 2010. The company began hybrid sales in 1997 and
sold 235,000 worldwide last year.

Toyota earned $12.1 billion in the year ended in March, its fourth
straight annual record. GM lost $10.6 billion last year.

GM's first hybrid SUV, the Saturn Vue sport-utility vehicle, debuts
this year. It won't have plug-in technology and will average 32 miles
a gallon on the highway, five miles more than a non-hybrid Vue.

The automaker's most fuel-efficient model is the Chevrolet Aveo small
car, at 35 miles a gallon.

GM's U.S. vehicles lag behind competitors such as Toyota and Honda
Motor Co. in fuel economy, according to data compiled by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The average U.S. retail price for regular gasoline is $2.87 a gallon
this week and has risen 28 percent this year, according to Energy
Department figures. The record was $3.07 in September.

The plug-in research isn't directly tied to GM's hybrid project with
DaimlerChrysler and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the people said. The
first GM model from that effort, a version of the Chevrolet Tahoe
SUV, is scheduled to go on sale next year. It won't plug in.

--With reporting by Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles, Greg Bensinger in
New York, Kae Inoue in Tokyo and Tian Ying in Beijing.