Click the Volt for a high-res gallery

Round and round we go... where we stop, nobody knows! That sounds like an apt description of the merry-go-round that is the Chevrolet Volt, especially when pricing and delivery date are concerned. Perhaps what we are witnessing in this case is the first truly transparent product launch in history. Do major shifts like this happen with all vehicles, or is the new technology needed to make the Volt a reality causing pricing headaches for GM management? Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the case, GM CEO Jim Wagoner has been quoted on Forbes as suggesting that General Motors will be selling an electric car for less than $30,000 by the year 2010.

Another possible explanation for this pricing confusion could involve the upcoming plug-in Saturn Vue. How can we be sure that Wagoner was referring to the Volt when he cited the pricing and deadline of the electric vehicle? We can't. It's possible that GM could have a plug-in Vue ready for the market in 2010 with an electric-only mode, making it an electric car of sorts. We'll just need to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the Volt's, and the Vue's, debut.

[Source: Forbes]

Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery

Back in mid-2006, GM rolled out its first mainstream production hybrid, the Saturn Vue Green Line, fairly late in its product life cycle. That one featured the first iteration of the mild GM Hybrid system. It was in production for less than a year before the first-gen Vue went away in favor of an all-new global design that was developed in a cooperative arrangement between GM engineers in North America, South Korea and Europe. The same body style is sold in Europe and other parts of the world as the Opel Antara. A second version with different styling and a lower level of content is sold in most of the world as the Chevy Captiva.

The second-generation Vue debuted in North America in late spring of 2007 and the new Green Line hybrid model came along about six months later. The old Vue was the last Saturn to follow the original model of a metal structure with plastic body panels. That setup has now been abandoned in favor of a metal body and it pays big dividends in fit and finish but we'll come back to that. The Vue falls into the burgeoning compact crossover class, and is currently one of only two hybrids in the segment (the other is the Ford Escape). Find out how the Vue compares after the jump.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Smartlets. Sounds like a new, electrolyte-filled candy or something you plug into your MacBook. Instead, Smartlets are one idea that would provide power to plug-in electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt or the Saturn Vue.
Partners Richard Lowenthal, CEO of California-based Coulomb Technologies, and Praveen Mandal will describe Smartlets to attendees of the Plug-In Car show in San Jose, California this July. According to Automotive News, Loenthal envisions Smartlets available for EVs and PHEVs in urban areas where people normally park their cars: parking lots, offices, stores, etc. Of course, Smartlet-like chargers are already available (for free) in some areas, like London.

GM likes the idea, but is taking a hands-off approach, but GM's vice president of global program management. Jon Lauckner, told Lowenthal and Mandal last fall that Smartlets are "a good idea." Of course, even though the Vue and the Volt are likely to be among the first plug-in vehicles available from a large automaker, Smarlets would probably be compatible with many plug-in vehicles, at least those that use a standard plug and can accept 110 or 220 volts. We'll need a wait a while to here more about Smartets. The Coulomb Technologies website says the company "is currently in quiet mode."

[Source: Jamie LaReau / Automotive News]

Click the Plug-in Hybrid Vue for a high-res gallery

Saturn publicly showed two versions of the new Two-Mode hybrid Vue cross-over today using different battery technologies. One is the standard model that will go on sale toward the end of the this year with a nickel metal hydride battery pack. The second uses a lithium ion pack and has the ability to be plugged in for 4-5 hours giving it a ten mile electric range. Let me here correct an error I made in my original post on the regular two-mode Vue. Contrary to what I had heard earlier, the fuel economy improvement is actually 50 percent in combined driving rather in the city cycle. According to GM Powertrain VP Tom Stephens, GM is actually hoping to get even more improvement before production launch later this year. The company also wants to get the PHEV Vue to market by late next year, making it the first commercially available plug-in hybrid.

[Source: General Motors]

Even Mexican President Felipe Calderon is excited about the Saturn Vue hybrid. Today, Calderon announced the start of production of the vehicle in Mexico, Automotive News reports. The plant is in Ramos Arizpe and has an annual capacity of 6,500 hybrid Vues. GM employees have been making standard Vues there since July. These SUVs will be exported north to the US and Canada. GM is still undecided on whether to offer the Vue Green Line in the country where it is produced. Read more about the 2008 Vue hybrid at the link below.

Related:

• 2008 Saturn Vue Green Line hits the street at $24,795 and 32 mpg HWY!

[Source: Stephen Downer / Automotive News]

Prior to the opening of the LA Auto Show this week, AutoblogGreen sat down with Denise Gray of General Motors to talk about batteries. Denise is the director of Hybrid Vehicle Energy Storage Systems and oversees all the battery development going at GM for vehicles ranging from the new Two-Mode hybrid SUVs to the Chevy Volt.

AutoblogGreen: Why don't we get started with the current status of battery development for the E-flex program. Bob Lutz recently mentioned in an interview you have received the first pack from CPI. Where do things stand right now?

Denise Gray: Well, just to step back a little bit in the May-June timeframe, we got our contracts together, we worked with our two chosen suppliers CPI and Continental and we have been working those programs feverishly. We have come up with designs that are buildable, if you will, for our first mule build, or our first bench build that is probably the more proper name, what that design should be composed of and CPI delivered that on October 31. I was over in the lab, in fact, when they called and said, "Hey, they are here. They are at the grounds. Come on. But our security guys routed them to a different gate, so they will be here in ten more minutes."

So it was kind of like waiting for the birth of a baby. They brought it in, they had their big truck they brought it in. We had our forklift. The guys went and got it and I said make sure you handle it very well, so it was brought in.

Check out the rest our conversation after the jump to learn about how GM determines the state of charge of a battery and the current status of the PHEV Saturn Vue.

Click the new Vue Green Line for high-res images

When GM introduced the previous generation Saturn Vue Green Line in 2006, it was the General's first crack at a production hybrid. While the old Vue was nothing to write home about, the mild hybrid system it carried did provide a new and relatively inexpensive (if less effective) option to those looking for a bit more mileage out of a crossover. The original Vue Green Line had a relatively short life as it debuted during the last model year of the old CUVs life-cycle.

The first of three hybrid versions of the second Vue is now ready for public consumption and it again features the mild hybrid belt-alternator-starter system. The control software of the system has been updated for 2008 for improved mileage. While the old Vue got 23/29 mpg (according to the revised 2008 procedures) the new one is rated at 25/32 mpg city/highway. That 32 mpg is the best among any SUV for 2008 although the Ford Escape hybrid is rated at 34/30 mpg with its strong hybrid system (it managed 30 real world mpg when it was in the ABG Garage). The new Vue Green Line is priced at $24,795 this year, undercutting the Escape by $280.

About a year from now a second Vue hybrid, featuring the first front wheel drive application of the GM's Two-Mode hybrid system, will hit the streets. Sometime in 2009 a third hybrid with the Two-Mode system, a lithium ion battery and plug-in capability will round out the family. More details after the jump.

Update: GM verified that the Vue hybrid is in production and they will still arriving in dealerships over the next few weeks. By Mid-November they should be widely available at all Saturn dealers.


Related:

• In the AutoblogGreen Garage: 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line

[Source: Saturn]