General Motors is planning to become the first major automaker to produce a plug-in hybrid in 2010 – or possibly even 2009 – but the Detroit-based automaker warns the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it should temper its expectations for what kind of impact plug-in hybrids will have on CAFE regulations by 2015.
Although vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and Saturn Vue plug-in will surely help GM’s green image, at a production rate of only about 60,000 vehicles by 2012, the segment won’t have the volume necessary to help with any CAFE increases. The NHTSA is considering a 25 percent bump in the 31.6 mpg 2011-2015 requirements, a move that would cost GM an estimated $17.3 billion, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“We’ve been very cautious in terms of the volume, just because of the innovation and the technology associated with that vehicle,” GM spokesman Greg Martin told the Detroit Free Press. “There’s a note of caution that, yes the technology is breakthrough, it is a game-changer, but as with any new game-changing technology, there needs to be a reasonable expectation set in terms of volume.”
GM says that plug-in hybrids and range-extending electric vehicles like the Volt won’t be able to be produced in any sort of large volumes until sometime after 2015.
