GM goes the green route
General Motors announces the launch of its own alternative energy vehicle strategies
By Lionel Kong in Bangkok, Thailand
IT’S NO SECRET that petrol won’t be available forever. At the rate that prices are climbing the probability of it becoming too expensive for the average vehicle owner in the near future can’t be ruled out.
Most major automotive firms are aware of this, and the push for cars powered by fuels other than petroleum-based products has ramped up in the last few years. General Motors is the latest firm to unveil its plans to product environmentally friendly and sustainable transportation, and at last week’s GM Environment and Energy Technology Symposium in Bangkok showcased some of its alternative fuel vehicles.
WINDS OF CHANGE
GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner was in Bangkok to talk about the company’s future strategies, and one of the main points that was addressed is GM’s push towards hybrid and alternative fuel cars.
“We all expected fuel prices to rise, but I think it’s safe to say that no one expected oil prices to shoot up so dramatically over the last two years,” said Wagoner. “GM is an international player, and we see that different countries are leaning towards different technologies to reduce the costs of transportation. We cannot rely on a single technology for GM brand to grow. For example, South America is now big on ethanol as a fuel, natural gas is rapidly gaining popularity in South-east Asia, and the Japanese seem to favour battery power.”
“For GM to stay as a major player internationally, we have to be ready with the right product for each market.”
GM has a stake in almost every part of the world through its major brands including Chevrolet, Saab, Holden, Vauxhall and Opel. The company assembles Chevrolet vehicles for sale in South-east Asia at its plants in Thailand and South Korea.
Wagoner announced that the GM group will have nine hybrid cars in production worldwide by the end of 2008, and the fully electric Chevrolet Volt, which was first unveiled as a prototype in 2007, will begin production in 2010.
The Volt will be GM’s most advanced vehicle design to date, relying on plug-in power to charge its batteries. A regular internal combustion engine will still be in the car, though its only function is to charge the batteries on the go should the car be driven beyond the 40-mile range limit of the batteries.
ALTERNATE POWER
Another form of propulsion that could soon become affordable enough to use is the fuel cell. A Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle was previewed in Bangkok, running on electric motors and emitting only water vapour from its exhaust pipe. While the technology to build refuelling stations is already in place, the costs of producing the large, heavy batteries required continue to keep them from going into mass production.
Natural gas and ethanol as fuels are already commonplace however, with Brazil being one of the leading countries in the use of ethanol to power its vehicles. For practical use, ethanol is blended with gasoline to produce a fuel often referred to as gasohol.
Gasohol fuels are rated according to the percentage of ethanol in the mixture. For example, E85 refers to a fuel that contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. GM already produces cars that are able to run on both gasohol and regular gasoline. Like the CNG enabled Chevrolet Optra that is currently available in Singapore, GM refers to them as flex-fuel vehicles, and a flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala that runs on E85 was showcased during the Symposium.
While Japan is often acknowledged as the leader in hybrid vehicles thanks in no small part to Toyota’s efforts with cars such as the Prius, GM wants to show that it isn’t far behind, bringing along the Saturn Vue Greenline, a hybrid SUV that uses an electric motor to assist the engine when extra power is demanded. The Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid is a massive 2,500kg, SUV-styled vehicle that is unlikely to ever be made available here, but is doing well back in America. Its 6.0-litre V8 engine is helped along by a 300 volt electric motor system with regenerative charging that is active everytime you apply the brakes.
The display is a clear sign that GM is keeping on track, and isn’t about to be left behind as we start developing automobiles for the next generation.
