Sounds good – I hope “additional battery capacity” doesn’t mean reduced utility.

also sounds like its many years away from reality. toyota has an incredible jump on all the competition, clearly everyone else is playing catch up…

Well, I suppose with so many steps forward, one should expect a step backward at some point. This will be a waste of money, and nothing more than a publicity stunt to show the world that GM is inded environmentally/energy conscious.

Had this plug-in solution been a REAL solution to anything, it would be going into many vehicles, not just the “Volvo” of the GM lineup. When a car company decides to actually work on a solution, the whole world will know it. The customers standing in line to buy one won’t just be the feel-good greenies, but actually the rest of the population that is not tied to it by ideology.

Both Wagoner and Lutz need to be “unplugged” and walked-out of GM with NO compensation—just fired. No golden parachute, no stock options, just a pink slip. They’ve provided the worst leadership in GM’s history. Plugged-in hybrid? Yeah right.

Good news. Now that election season is over, notice gas prices creeping back up? And then after the Christmas shopping season is over its gonna be right back to $3 a gallon by springtime.

I’m sure that if Toyota announced they were developing a plug-in hybrid SUV capable of 65+ MPG, you’d be leveling the same criticism at them that you are leveling at GM right now. Right?

century24 is absolutely right. Had this been a Toyota announcement the circle jerks in this forum would be going nuts with glee…..

So when can we expect that in-house developed V-8 Diesel engine, GM? Don’t waste precious time with crap like this, Diesel and later on Hydrogen are the future…hybrids are as good as dead.

actually id be giving toyota more **** than gms getting cause toyota loves balls

Had Toyota said they were developing a plug-in hybrid I would have said the same as I did about GM? Toyota, and for that matter, any other car manufacturer gets the allocates they deserve when they earn it. GM deserves no allocates—poor executive management has made GM the laughing stock of the automotive industry.
.
Again, GM = A decade late, and few billion dollars short.

“Again, GM = A decade late, and few billion dollars short.”

Go tell that to the EV-1 they developed and promptly killed. (Electric car released in ‘96, stopped production in ‘00 with a 8,000 person waiting list.)

Hate to tell you all but ALL the OEMs (with hybrids) are working on plug in hybrids. Toyota and Honda have both already announced they are working on them.

F451- That’s fine, but let me ask you this…how does one start earning allocates in your book? To me, even if I hated GM to its core, I’d say they’re at least showing some effort here. They could’ve just not announced anything and went on their merry way, ditched the plug-in hybrid project, saving billions in the process. Apparently, to you, they’re better off doing nothing at all, because God forbid GM actually came up with an innovation—that might earn one of your precious accolades, and we can’t have that. It seems GM is flatlined in your book and is incapable of doing anything right. Look, I respect your opinion, but it’s difficult to take it seriously when it seems all you want is for GM to be, well, “unplugged”.

“Both Wagoner and Lutz need to be “unplugged” and walked-out of GM with NO compensation—just fired. No golden parachute, no stock options, just a pink slip. They’ve provided the worst leadership in GM’s history. Plugged-in hybrid? Yeah right.

Comment by F451, posted on November29 at 6:11 pm”

Actually I think Roger Smith still gets the award for worst General Motors executive. He is the one that turned GM from making cars into selling finacing.

I think this is a great idea. While we are all fast asleep the hybrid can be charging so it doesn’t need the gas engine for the first 30 or so miles.

I believe it’s “ACCOLADES”, not allocates.

And for the record, I admonish any and all manufacturer’s who keep pushing battery powered cars. Battery powered cars cause more problems than they solve. I am the first to defend GM in any case, but a plug in car is simply a joke and PR stunt.

With plug in cars, you will begin to see your local arrogant news media begin to report on a cute little story about how outdoor electrical outlets are all getting padlocks on them because those silly electric car owners are plugging in wherever they can. Why is that a problem? Because electricity is expensive! How much money do you think you’ll save by plugging in your car over night to recharge it for a 20 mile journey every single day?? People really need to get beyond the feel good antics of these bogus solutions and demand a real one. It’s in everybody’s best interests.

“I think this is a great idea. While we are all fast asleep the hybrid can be charging so it doesn’t need the gas engine for the first 30 or so miles.”….

Make sure you are alll snuggled Max!! I rest my case.

As a frequent “squatter” on the 405 freeway in California, i do see some potential in a vehicle like this. This does hearken back to the EV1, but at least GM finally has pulled their heads out of the sand. Lets hope that it isn’t too little, too late.

“And for the record, I admonish any and all manufacturer’s who keep pushing battery powered cars. Battery powered cars cause more problems than they solve. I am the first to defend GM in any case, but a plug in car is simply a joke and PR stunt.

With plug in cars, you will begin to see your local arrogant news media begin to report on a cute little story about how outdoor electrical outlets are all getting padlocks on them because those silly electric car owners are plugging in wherever they can. Why is that a problem? Because electricity is expensive! How much money do you think you’ll save by plugging in your car over night to recharge it for a 20 mile journey every single day?? People really need to get beyond the feel good antics of these bogus solutions and demand a real one. It’s in everybody’s best interests.

Comment by Piablo, posted on November30 at 10:39 am ”

Having a plugin hybrid is more cost effective than having a regular hybrid. Lets say that it takes 3500 wats to charge a hybrid battery (I honestly have no idea how many wats it would take to fill a battery that size, so I pulled this number out of the air). The current rate for a kW/h is about 10 cents. To fill the hypothetical battery it would take 3.5 kW/h, costing about 35 cents. With a full battery the gas engine would not have to run saving the gallon of gas that would have normally been spent to charge the battery. At 3 bucks a gallon the savings would be realized instantly.

Max, since you brought it up, I will explain. Since we purchase electricity by the kw/hr, we need to find out how much electricity per hour one of these vehicles would use. I looked at the Prius, since GM doesn’t have a motor for the Vue yet. The Prius has a motor with an output of 50 kw. Now, in order to produce 50kw, it will need more energy. Let’s say the motor is 90% efficient roughly, so it will need about 55 kilo watts to produce the 50. Let’s say the average commute to work is 1/2 hour regardless of miles when you take into account traffic lights and such. So back and forth, we are looking at 1 hour of usage per day. If we only drove the battery powered car to work and back, for a total of one hour.

So our formula to figure out the energy usage, is this: ((wattage x hours per day) / 1000) = kw/hr
Let’s plug our numbers in. 50kw (motor output) x 1 hr per day = 50kw/hr. Now the average cost of electricity in NY for 2005 was 16 cents per kw/hr. Multiply that by 50, and the daily cost of electricity for that car is…$8.00 Average cost of electricity in Maryland is 9 cents, for the car daily…$4.50

Now, what is cheaper? A Honda civic that would burn one gallon, or a plug-in car?

Geez, I can’t wait now that GM is going to rule the world. Does is come with an electrical receptacle provided by GM that breaks when the warranty runs out?

atleast gm has somthing going for them they have nice looking vechicles and a good warrenty to back it up!!!!!! what does ford have well 1st off they support homo’s and well thats all they got going for them ohh and bold moves which i cant figure out the point of because the only bold thing that company accomplished is getting that quier bill ford out of the way!!!