General Motors will produce a full-size pickup truck featuring a hybrid powertrain beginning in 2004 and will start delivering a hybrid powertrain for transit buses later this year.
The Detroit-based company made the announcements recently at a media briefing in Pontiac, Michigan, to "underscore its intent to remain North America's fuel economy leader."
GM vice-chairman Harry J. Pearce put it this way: "It's simple: We lead in truck fuel economy today and General Motors intends to remain the leader in five years."
The notion of a pickup truck with two motive forces?a regular diesel engine and an electric engine to add supplement juice?might be of particular interest to the general consumer. But Pearce pointed out that, "Buses might be the single most important step to reduce transportation emissions for the U.S. or any other country."
There are about 13,000 transit buses in service in the nine largest U.S. cities, Pearce explained. "If we could replace those buses with ones featuring the GM hybrid system, this country would use nearly 40 million fewer gallons of diesel fuel every year. To put that in context, that's the equivalent fuel savings of 584,000 small cars with hybrid propulsion systems."
And it's not like the vehicles with the hybrid systems will have to sacrifice any performance, Pearce said, since the systems will meet or exceed the power performance of a conventional powertrain.