Posted on: Tuesday, December 14, 2004
GM, DaimlerChrysler to build hybrid engines
By John Porretto
Associated Press
DETROIT — General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG are teaming up to develop fuel-saving hybrid engines in hopes of cashing in on an expanding market already dominated by hybrid leaders Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
General Motors via AP The first of the vehicles is scheduled to debut in 2007 — when Toyota has said it hopes sales of its hybrid models will total several hundred thousand worldwide.
Although hybrids overall make up only a minute percentage of global auto sales, Stephens noted that some analysts believe hybrids eventually could account for 5 percent to 15 percent of global volume.
GM, which has worked with DaimlerChrysler on transmissions, also has said it considers hybrids a bridge to longer-range hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which require no fossil fuel and release no toxic emissions.
Hybrids draw power from two energy sources, typically a gas or diesel engine combined with an electric motor. Demand has grown worldwide because of concerns about the dangers of global warming, decreasing natural fuel supplies and the rising cost of those fuels.
GM and Chrysler already sell hybrid pickups, but the systems are less advanced and fuel-efficient than those used on cars sold by Toyota and Honda and on Ford Motor Co.'s hybrid version of its Escape sport utility vehicle, the world's first gas-electric hybrid SUV.
Although GM and DaimlerChrysler clearly lag some rivals in hybrid offerings, the two
automakers contend the co-developed system will be more sophisticated than those currently on the market because it will use smaller motors and provide better fuel economy and towing capability at highway speeds.
The technology is derived from an advanced hybrid system developed by GM that's in use in transit buses in some U.S. cities. In the Seattle area, for example, the 60-foot mass-transit vehicles, which are more expensive than standard diesel buses, deliver up to 60 percent greater fuel economy and can reduce emissions by as much as 90 percent.
"They're going to be answering questions for the next year and a half: How come you guys are behind?" said Lindsay Brooke, an analyst with the forecasting firm CSM Worldwide. "But if this transmission were in the marketplace in 2005, it would knock everybody's socks off. I think the plan all along has been to come up with something they could shop around the industry."
GM and DaimlerChrysler said the project will be open to other partners and may result in GM and DaimlerChrysler licensing hybrid technology to rivals.
Financial terms of the agreement between GM, the world's largest automaker, and its German-American rival weren't disclosed yesterday, but Tom Stephens, GM's group vice president for power trains, said the collaboration likely will involve an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rick Wagoner, left, chairman and CEO of General Motors, and Dieter Zetsche, president and CEO of the Chrysler Group, had a hands-on experience at GM's power-train plant in Pontiac, Mich., yesterday as the companies announced a joint effort on hybrid engines.
