General Motors Tries for a Halo With Hybrid Bus: Doron Levin
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Size gets attention. Just ask General Motors Corp.
For a few years, the No. 1 automaker worldwide has been a target of environmentalists, who are pushing the auto industry to introduce fuel-saving hybrid technology.
GM still hasn't built or sold any fuel-saving gas-electric hybrid passenger vehicles, prompting the accusation that it's slow to match Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., which together sell thousands each month. GM says it isn't slow, it's deliberate.
Ford Motor Co., the No. 2 producer worldwide in terms of sales, will begin building its first hybrid vehicle, the Escape sport-utility vehicle, in July.
Last week General Motors delivered the first of 235 diesel- electric hybrid transit buses for the Seattle area. A Canadian company, New Flyer, built the buses. Caterpillar Inc. made the diesel. GM integrated the software and controls in the system, so the automaker got most of the spotlight at a ceremony in Seattle.
The experience and knowledge that GM gains with its bus diesel hybrid systems will help, it says, in pursuit of its overall fuel conservation strategy. GM will offer a ``mild'' hybrid system for a small number of its pickup trucks this summer. A mild hybrid will come in the Saturn Vue in 2006 and Chevrolet Malibu in 2007.
Wearing the Halo
General Motors then will offer its first full-fledged gas- electric hybrid system to consumers in its Tahoe and Yukon sport- utility vehicles in 2007, which will improve fuel efficiency by 30 percent. Again, the number of vehicles will be small.
In a mild hybrid, an electric motor and large battery assist the engine, which still provides most of the power. Energy from braking is used to recharge the battery. In a full hybrid, the engine or motor, or the two together, run the vehicle. The engine and the brakes recharge the battery.
Chris Preuss, a GM spokesman, explained that environmental advocacy groups have been punishing GM since it abandoned its EV1, a battery-powered, zero-emission electric car, in 2001. The EV1's performance proved to be marginal due to battery limitations; not more than a few thousand customers were interested enough to lease it.
``The same environmentalists that criticize us for the fuel efficiency and emissions of our pickup trucks are less critical of Toyota -- even though Toyota is getting into pickups,'' Preuss said.
General Motors was able to wear the halo of environmental virtue with EV1; Toyota and Honda now wear it with their hybrids.
The Economics
The advantage for individual automakers could be critical when lawmakers consider -- which they do routinely -- whether to respond to environmental pressure and tighten federal fuel efficiency and air-quality standards. Depending on how standards are changed, the government may penalize some automakers more than others.
For the time being gas-electric hybrids -- or even diesel- electric hybrids -- don't make a lot of economic sense, in GM's view. The system's additional cost means that the automakers must subsidize sales of passenger vehicles to motivate enough customers to buy them.
Toyota claims it can make money with hybrids. The Japanese automaker underscored the point this week by raising monthly production of its Prius hybrid to 10,000 from 7,500 in the wake of higher gasoline prices.
In the case of taxpayer-supported transit buses, General Motors said that Seattle is paying about $645,000 per hybrid bus, compared with $445,000 for a conventional diesel bus. The improvement in fuel economy will be about 60 percent. Some emissions will be reduced by 90 percent.
The premium price for a hybrid bus, with an average life span of about 12 years, will be repaid only after seven years of savings on fuel purchases, GM said. All of which assumes that diesel fuel prices remain stable, a shaky assumption at best, given the volatility of the Middle East.
Reading the Public Mind
For most environmentalists, hybrid technology isn't about saving money, it's about saving the planet. Seattle, a hotbed of such thinking, is an ideal location for a taxpayer-subsidized project to demonstrate the virtues of hybrid technology.
Automakers, by contrast, must make their case for hybrid passenger vehicles based at least partly on economics, since shareholders won't subsidize investments that don't provide a fair return.
General Motors's EV1 battery-powered electric car was a $1 billion mistake, one the current management can't afford to repeat by trying to outdo Toyota just to prove a point.
GM, thus, is hedging its bets by investing in an array of fuel-saving technologies, including hydrogen-powered fuel cells and even ones that make conventional gasoline engines more efficient, such as ``displacement on demand,'' which shuts down cylinders that aren't in use.
Hybrids look more and more like a technology that full-line automakers must know how to build in the event that gasoline prices go higher and stay there. Economics isn't entirely the reason. It's the public's belief -- valid or not -- that fossil fuel and air must be conserved at almost any cost.
Full Article Here
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Size gets attention. Just ask General Motors Corp.
For a few years, the No. 1 automaker worldwide has been a target of environmentalists, who are pushing the auto industry to introduce fuel-saving hybrid technology.
GM still hasn't built or sold any fuel-saving gas-electric hybrid passenger vehicles, prompting the accusation that it's slow to match Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., which together sell thousands each month. GM says it isn't slow, it's deliberate.
Ford Motor Co., the No. 2 producer worldwide in terms of sales, will begin building its first hybrid vehicle, the Escape sport-utility vehicle, in July.
Last week General Motors delivered the first of 235 diesel- electric hybrid transit buses for the Seattle area. A Canadian company, New Flyer, built the buses. Caterpillar Inc. made the diesel. GM integrated the software and controls in the system, so the automaker got most of the spotlight at a ceremony in Seattle.
The experience and knowledge that GM gains with its bus diesel hybrid systems will help, it says, in pursuit of its overall fuel conservation strategy. GM will offer a ``mild'' hybrid system for a small number of its pickup trucks this summer. A mild hybrid will come in the Saturn Vue in 2006 and Chevrolet Malibu in 2007.
Wearing the Halo
General Motors then will offer its first full-fledged gas- electric hybrid system to consumers in its Tahoe and Yukon sport- utility vehicles in 2007, which will improve fuel efficiency by 30 percent. Again, the number of vehicles will be small.
In a mild hybrid, an electric motor and large battery assist the engine, which still provides most of the power. Energy from braking is used to recharge the battery. In a full hybrid, the engine or motor, or the two together, run the vehicle. The engine and the brakes recharge the battery.
Chris Preuss, a GM spokesman, explained that environmental advocacy groups have been punishing GM since it abandoned its EV1, a battery-powered, zero-emission electric car, in 2001. The EV1's performance proved to be marginal due to battery limitations; not more than a few thousand customers were interested enough to lease it.
``The same environmentalists that criticize us for the fuel efficiency and emissions of our pickup trucks are less critical of Toyota -- even though Toyota is getting into pickups,'' Preuss said.
General Motors was able to wear the halo of environmental virtue with EV1; Toyota and Honda now wear it with their hybrids.
The Economics
The advantage for individual automakers could be critical when lawmakers consider -- which they do routinely -- whether to respond to environmental pressure and tighten federal fuel efficiency and air-quality standards. Depending on how standards are changed, the government may penalize some automakers more than others.
For the time being gas-electric hybrids -- or even diesel- electric hybrids -- don't make a lot of economic sense, in GM's view. The system's additional cost means that the automakers must subsidize sales of passenger vehicles to motivate enough customers to buy them.
Toyota claims it can make money with hybrids. The Japanese automaker underscored the point this week by raising monthly production of its Prius hybrid to 10,000 from 7,500 in the wake of higher gasoline prices.
In the case of taxpayer-supported transit buses, General Motors said that Seattle is paying about $645,000 per hybrid bus, compared with $445,000 for a conventional diesel bus. The improvement in fuel economy will be about 60 percent. Some emissions will be reduced by 90 percent.
The premium price for a hybrid bus, with an average life span of about 12 years, will be repaid only after seven years of savings on fuel purchases, GM said. All of which assumes that diesel fuel prices remain stable, a shaky assumption at best, given the volatility of the Middle East.
Reading the Public Mind
For most environmentalists, hybrid technology isn't about saving money, it's about saving the planet. Seattle, a hotbed of such thinking, is an ideal location for a taxpayer-subsidized project to demonstrate the virtues of hybrid technology.
Automakers, by contrast, must make their case for hybrid passenger vehicles based at least partly on economics, since shareholders won't subsidize investments that don't provide a fair return.
General Motors's EV1 battery-powered electric car was a $1 billion mistake, one the current management can't afford to repeat by trying to outdo Toyota just to prove a point.
GM, thus, is hedging its bets by investing in an array of fuel-saving technologies, including hydrogen-powered fuel cells and even ones that make conventional gasoline engines more efficient, such as ``displacement on demand,'' which shuts down cylinders that aren't in use.
Hybrids look more and more like a technology that full-line automakers must know how to build in the event that gasoline prices go higher and stay there. Economics isn't entirely the reason. It's the public's belief -- valid or not -- that fossil fuel and air must be conserved at almost any cost.
Full Article Here