General Motors Corp. plans to be the first automaker to offer plug-in hybrids to consumers with production of Saturn Vue sports utility vehicles beginning as soon as 2010, the company said Monday.
This will coincide with the anticipated launch of GM's electric car, the Chevy Volt, and is part of a major incursion into the hybrid market currently dominated by Japanese rival Toyota Motor.
Toyota announced plans Sunday to deliver a small fleet of plug-in hybrids to commercial customers but did not reveal when they would be available to the general public.
GM, which was late in introducing gas-electric hybrids, will be selling eight models in the US by the end of the year and plans to introduce 16 new hybrids over the next four years.
It is also making a major incursion into flex-fuel vehicles, having announced plans Sunday to produce biofuel out of garbage at a cost of less than a dollar a gallon in a venture with Illinois-based Coskata Inc.
GM is currently producing more than a million flex-fuel vehicles a year globally and is committed to making half its production flex-fuel by 2012.
The Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid is an improvement over GM's current hybrid and will be able to drive up to 10 miles on electricity alone, GM said.
“When the lithium-ion batteries are fully charged, the Vue plug-in hybrid will potentially double the fuel efficiency of any current SUV,” GM said in a statement.
