General Motors Uses "Green" Technology in Developing Affordable Cars.
General Motors Corp. is leading the development of affordable cars that won't harm the environment, not lagging behind, the automaker's top executives asserted Sunday.
Frustrated by all the attention the Japanese got from the super-clean, high-gas-mileage cars of the future they displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show in October, GM touted its own technology in a pointed effort to show it's not trailing Honda and Toyota.
GM executives pledged a hybrid car would be ready for production in 2001, powered by a battery-powered electric motor and a small, high-mileage gasoline engine. An exotic car powered by a fuel cell, which emits only water vapor from the tailpipe, would be ready for production by 2004.
GM did not promise that it would actually have hybrid or fuel cell-powered cars ready for sale in the next decade.
But setting the deadline served notice to its suppliers and competitors that GM has a promising mix of powertrain technology in the labs.
"One of the reasons we have made these commitments to a hybrid car in 2001 and a fuel cell car in 2004 is to set the pace on technology," said Ken Baker, GM vice president for global research and development operations.
In the past GM has been reluctant to talk in public about unfinished research, though Sunday's display showed the company clearly hasn't been neglecting its development work, particularly in powertrain technology.
"Their technical well is very deep," said David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan. "If I had to put my money on who has the leading-edge technology in the world, I'd say it's right here."
Chrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are doing similar research on hybrids and fuel cells. Detroit's Big Three automakers and a host of federal research laboratories have been trying to make an affordable Taurus-size sedan that gets 80 miles per gallon.
This program is geared to producing a production prototype by 2004. GM appears to be ahead of schedule with its 2001 deadline for a hybrid car.
While almost all the technology is on hand to make alternative fuel vehicles, the trick is to reduce the production costs to a point where the exotic car costs no more than today's typical $20,000 sedan.
By 2013, vehicles powered by fuel cells, hybrid engines and other alternatives to today's internal combustion gasoline engines probably will make up about 20 percent to 25 percent of the new vehicles sold in the nation, Baker said.
GM Chairman Jack Smith and Vice Chairman Harry Pearce also took part in a lively demonstration Sunday at Cobo Hall, where thousands of journalists from around the world are gathering for the North American International Auto Show.
Car companies began showing off their new concept cars and production models Sunday, and they'll continue through the rest of the week.
GM displayed the powerplants for a hybrid sports car and a hybrid sedan. It also said it would begin to distribute next fall the next generation of batteries for the electric-powered EV1, a car now on sale in California and Arizona.
The EV1 has been poorly received in part because its batteries need recharging about every 80 miles. The new batteries would be able to move the car 160 miles between charges.
Smith described the research into engines powered by alternative fuels as a necessary task.
"Though the science is being debated there is a definite cause for concern," Smith said, referring to global warming, the notion that temperatures could rise worldwide as greenhouse gases created by burning oil and coal enter the atmosphere and trap heat from the sun.
Just before the global warming conference convened in December in Kyoto, Japan, Japanese automakers made waves at the Tokyo show.
Honda Motor Co. said it had a new engine that would emit virtually no smog-producing pollutants.
While the various automakers have been touting their fuel cell engines, it'll be 10 to 15 years before the cost is driven down to the point where such technology will be available in mass-produced cars.
Toyota Motor Corp. said it would sell the world's first gasoline-electric hybrid car, the Prius, at prices subsidized to keep the cost to consumers at about $17,000.
That left the Big Three looking upstaged until Sunday, when GM's top execs took the stage in identical green sweaters.
Smith asked his engineers how their technology compares to the Prius. The response: GM's hybrid has more to offer American drivers in terms of speed and acceleration.
"I don't think we're behind the curve at all," Smith said. "We think we're in the lead in many respects."
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
January 6, 1998
Evanoff, Ted