DETROIT, Sept 3 (Reuters) – General Motors Corp has extended its employee-level pricing discount program by one month through the end of September and increased the number of 2009 model year vehicles carrying the offer to boost sagging sales and clear out inventory.

The program, launched in late August, applies to almost its entire line-up of 2008 model year vehicles and has been expanded to include most 2009 model year vehicles at dealerships, including all Silverado and Sierra pickups, GM spokesman John McDonald said on Wednesday.

GM’s better-selling cars, such as the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac Vibe are also included in the extended offer, the No.1 U.S. automaker said.

 

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and David Bailey, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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CBC announced that General Motors have made the decision to build hybrid pickup trucks at their Oshawa, Ontario plant this fall but are still on schedule to close the truck plant next year. “After careful consideration, GM has decided to launch the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra Hybrid production operations at the Oshawa truck plant” stated GM spokesman Stew Low. Low also added during the conference “this does not impact the decision to cease operations at the plant in 2009 or sooner, depending on market conditions”. The closure of the Ontario plant next year will also eliminate 2,600 jobs. No further details have been released.

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Chevrolet is making that happen. Right now Chevy offers seven models with an EPA estimated 30 MPG highway or better. It’s Chevy’s answer to the $4.00 per gallon of gasoline.

That’s why Chevrolet is working on its hybrid technology. That doesn’t mean you have to think small. Chevy didn’t. 

So what exactly is a hybrid? It’s a vehicle that uses a combination of at least two different fuel sources for power. That means some combination of the gasoline internal combustion engine, an electric motor or a battery that powers the electric motor and stores energy for future use.

The Green Car Journal named the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid the Green Car of the Year.

America’s first full-size hybrid SUV is available in two- or four-wheel drive and provides the power and capability you expect from a utility vehicle while delivering efficiency you never imagined. When you need the extra muscle of Tahoe’s Vortec V8, it kicks in seamlessly. When you need to conserve, two small motors get the job done. The Tahoe Hybrid offers up to 50% better city fuel economy over the non-hybrid Tahoe.

If you’re going for less muscle and more style, check out the 2008 North American Car of the Year. As a hybrid, powered by the standard 2.4-liter, four-cylinder engine and a 36-volt electric motor/generator, the Malibu Hybrid produces a respectable 164 horsepower and 159 pound-feet of torque. The Malibu Hybrid also gets more than 30 estimated highway miles per gallon.

There’s a lot more hybrid to come. The 2009 Chevy Silverado Two-Mode Hybrid is expected to provide the same dependability, power and performance you demand in a Chevy Truck when it debuts later this year.

So what about now? Which Chevy model will save you the most gas money, be better on the environment and fit you and your lifestyle best? Go to Jupiter Chevrolet to learn more about what kind of technology you can drive home.

And why we’ve put tremendous design and engineering resources in place to make Concept Chevy Volt – our extended-range electric vehicle – a reality. Now that’s technology

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The greening of the transportation sector is rife with conflict. Frequent debates occur over the benefits and disadvantages of several emerging technologies. Which has better energy-efficiency? Hydrogen or battery electric? Which is more feasible in the short-run? Plug-in hybrids or biodiesel? Which is more eco-friendly? Hybrids or compressed natural gas? The answers to these questions depend on who one asks. Interest groups, auto and oil giants, entrepreneurs, and consumer-activists all offer varying opinions on how we can best meet the climate challenge through the adoption of new vehicle technologies.

A new book, Plugged In: The End of the Oil Age, provides what I have found to be the most comprehensive, well-researched, succinct, and up-to-date source yet on the topic. Published by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) and authored by Dr. Gary Kendall, a former petroleum industry scientist, the book is available for free and downloadable from this site.

 Plugged In was given to me at last week’s GreenWest Expo by Felix Kramer, Founder of CalCars (an advocacy group for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles). I stopped to have coffee with Felix and Ed Kjaer (Director of Electric Transportation at Southern California Edison) before each of them gave their presentations on next-generation plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Our conversation revolved around whether we can expect the major automakers to produce plug-in hybrids in any meaningful numbers in the near future. We also discussed the influence that entrepreneurs play in the development of this technology. Felix’s group and others around the country are busy converting standard Toyota Priuses to plug-ins that average 100 mpg. While they have helped a lucky few spend far less at the pump, their real power lies in the symbolic effect of increasing public awareness and stimulating public policy to drive the industry towards grid-connected vehicles.

And that brings me back to Plugged In. After a thorough (but accessible) review of every major Well-to-Wheel (WTW) analyses of alternative fuels and technologies currently proposed in the field, Kendall states that electric vehicles hold the most immediate potential to deliver on 4 objectives simultaneously: (1) a reduction in CO2 emissions, (2) improvements in energy efficiency, (3) a dramatic increase in air quality, and (4) enhanced energy security. What is especially interesting, however, are the policy recommendations prescribed near the end of the book. Kendall calls for an “integrated approach.” This means “a suite of policies” which are targeted at (i) suppliers of energy (to ensure the greatest mix of renewables on the grid) (ii) manufacturers of vehicles (to incentivize the production of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles) and (iii) consumers of vehicles (to stimulate widespread adoption).

Such an approach can go a long way towards cleaning the air, slowing climate change, ending oil wars, and creating green-collar jobs within the industry. Hopefully, this type of discussion will be present at the upcoming conference in D.C., “Plug-In Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington?” Sponsored by Google’s ReChargeIt initiative, those who are interested can watch the free webcast on June 11 and 12, 2008. A number of U.S. Congress members are scheduled to speak, in addition to e.v. superstar entrepreneurs, like Shai Agassi. Perhaps we may begin to see the development of federal policies necessary for a sustainable transportation paradigm.

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We here at Planet Jupiter hear about and see tons of other blogs that talk about cars that run on water. We are very skeptical but of ocurse we want you to decide for yourself. And so here is an article from another blog that may, or may not, help add some truth or confusion to the issue.

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Will America Get an Affordable, Practical Electric Vehicle?

Nissan has announced that it will have an electric car available to the general public by 2012. The motor press says it will have a range of 100 miles, top off at 75 mph, and take eight hours to recharge. These figures are not likely to get anyone too excited.

I asked 28-year-old Erik, who drives a VW Rabbit with sport rims, if he’d ever consider buying an electric car. “Never!” he declared. “They’re a pipe dream. GM tried electric cars [the EV1] in the 1990s and they failed. Why would they work now?”

Erik likes to go fast, and he’d no doubt consider the Nissan electric impossibly slow. Getting to that top speed might take him into next week. The car may be a version of the boxy Nissan Cube, shown off at the New York Auto Show this year. Lithium-ion batteries are part of the package, and the company is also working with small 20-horsepower motors in each of the four wheels (a version that could be on the market by 2015). Nissan partner Renault is also involved.

Nissan intends its electric cars (there could be more than one model) for commuters, most of whom travel less than 100 miles a day. But that’s always been true, and it hasn’t resulted in significant battery sales. If this new car is going to sell at all, it better be affordable.

The battery car world is reacting cautiously to the news. Ron Freund, chairman of the Electric Auto Association, says, “We remain hopeful that one of the majors will indeed produce a product that we know can be made. I’ll believe it when I see it in the showrooms.”

Nissan North America spokesman John Schilling isn’t saying much, either. “We will be bringing to the U.S. an EV product,” he said. “We’re not sure what it will be and what it will look like — there’s no prototype.”

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The second looks I’ve been getting when driving around in the Tahoe Hybrid, however, come with a mix of honest to goodness smiles and positive thumbs up, to heads shaking in disbelief, with one neighbor looking perplexed while saying, “Now there’s the ultimate automotive oxymoron”.

Driving by a group of mall shoppers walking to their car, in absolute silence, really grabbed eyeballs, which I must admit was fun, and then when out on the highway the SUV’s get-up-and-go put away anyone else’s doubts as to a hybrid’s performance credentials. This truck really moves, although I found myself driving the Tahoe Hybrid differently than I did with a regular version last year. For much more click here.

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We all know that big SUV’s have an image problem during this gas price crunch as people try to get small when buying or trading a vehicle.

Scott Burgess with the Detroit News has written a review where he mentions the unthinkable…….a full size SUV getting better gas mileage than a top selling sedan?

Click here for more

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Understanding your hybrid car is more than simply understanding how it works. To you the main point when you are buying a vehicle is if it can provide you with what you want or not.

You likely do not care what is going on under the hood, but rather you are focused on how the vehicle runs. You want a vehicle that has the power and drive that you need and desire.

Alternative Energy Cars

Hybrids often get a bad name for no reason. This usually due to misunderstandings about what a hybrid is. In the past the idea of a car that could run off alternative energy provided to be very disappointing.Manufactures have experimented with electric, which used to be considered the future of the industry. However, electric vehicles proved to be a huge disappointment because they lacked the reliability and power people need in a vehicle.Electric cars needed plugged in and they just couldn’t handle the everyday driving condition for which they would be used because they were not powerful enough. Electric cars soon feel by the wayside, however the idea of an alternative energy car was not lost.In came hybrids. The idea of using electric seemed to be something the manufacturers could not let go of. Electric energy is used in many ways and t just seemed right to use it in vehicles. To get over the hurdle of the power, though, manufacturers knew they needed a solution.The solution was to incorporate gasoline and electric into the vehicle. The hybrid was born and it proved to be a rather ingenious idea. The gasoline engine in the hybrid would help with the power issues and the electric motor was revamped so that it could be self sustaining without the need to plug the car into an electrical source.
The kinks were worked out and today we have hybrids that are keeping up with gasoline vehicles.

The Evolution

There was still an issue with earlier hybrids and that was the issue with the electric motor power. It was discovered that if the vehicle was too heavy that the electric motor would barely run because it just couldn’t handle the weight. Early hybrids were very light weight and the weight issue limited models to smaller cars only.

This problem, though, was overcome by advances in the electric motor technology. Today you can get almost any type of vehicle you want in a hybrid model.

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What would a 100-mpg car look like? According to General Motors, it will look a lot like the company’s forthcoming Chevrolet Volt or Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid.

 

Despite the company’s massive investment in hydrogen fuel cell technology — which it remains absolutely committed to — GM doesn’t see the gasoline internal combustion engine going anywhere anytime soon. And while that workhorse of the industry is getting more efficient, GM’s Bob Kruse said the only way it’ll achieve triple-digit fuel economy is to mate it to an electric motor.

“We will be using internal combustion engines for awhile,” Kruse, executive director of global engineering of hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries, said during an online chat this morning. “The 100-mpg car can be thought of as the Volt, (and) it will achieve this operating on a combination of electric and ICE propulsion.”

More here .

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GENEVA - General Motors has signed a deal with Hitachi to supply Lithium-Ion batteries for its next-generation mild hybrid technology, due to hit the road in 2010. The GM/Hitachi Vehicle Energy deal also will provide battery technology for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, which GM says it’s continuing to develop apace. The Hitachi deal is the latest volley in what has become a three-way race to get Li-Ion batteries — used mainly to power laptop computers — under the hoods of clean, high-mileage cars.

Mercedes-Benz has apparently taken the lead in that race. It plans to bring an S400 hybrid using Li-Ion by 2009. That car will launch in Europe before the U.S., and probably won’t come Stateside until late in that year.

Click here for more on this story.

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