Evidently in 12 years 80% of GM cars will be hybrids!
From GCC:
Quote:
Detroit News. General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz said that the automaker would have to produce 80% of its vehicles as some type of hybrid by 2020 in order to meet new fuel economy standards.
“Ultimately by 2020, we figure that 80 percent of vehicles are going to require some sort of level of hybridization,” Lutz said in an interview today. “We cannot get to 35 miles per gallon with anything resembling the current product portfolio with conventional technology.”
Automakers must average a combined 35 miles per gallon by 2020 for passenger cars and light trucks, a 40 percent increase. Lutz said in order to meet the first increases in the requirements, GM would build about one-third of its vehicles as hybrids by 2015&mash;when new fuel economy standards “really start to bite.”
GM will have eight hybrids in its line-up by the end of 2008, ranging from mild hybrids with the GM Hybrid System to full hybrids with the advanced two-mode hybrid system. GM has also announced its intention to produce a Saturn VUE plug-in by the end of 2010, in addition to the Chevrolet Volt Extended Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV).
Lutz said GM will be forced to add hybrid engines “to a lot of sport utilities and pick-up trucks.”
Lutz has said earlier that building so many hybrids will add $6,000 to $7,000 to the cost of an average vehicle and that most—if not all—V-8 engines will disappear. The company is still not sure how to get the heaviest vehicles to improve as much as the government will require. “We don't know. We’re open to ideas.”
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