More about GM's plans.
Major Business News October 19, 1999
GM Is Set to Unveil New Push
for 'Green' Car in Auto Lines
By JEFFREY BALL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
General Motors Corp. plans to roll out a strategy Tuesday to move ahead in
the race for a "green" car, showing off a concept vehicle that could use either
electric or gasoline power and thus, GM said, would reduce the cost of
bringing environmentally friendlier autos to market.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive John F. Smith Jr. is expected to unveil the
company's so-called Triax concept at the Tokyo Motor Show. The model on
display will be a sport-utility vehicle powered by an electric motor in front and
a combined electric-and-gasoline power plant in the rear.
So-called hybrid vehicles, which combine the fuel economy of an electric
motor with the long driving range of a gasoline engine, already are on the road.
Toyota Motor Corp., which is displaying a new hybrid concept somewhat
similar to GM's Triax at this week's Tokyo show, and Honda Motor Co.
each plan to start selling hybrids in the U.S. in the coming months.
GM contends its Triax concept is different because the vehicle has a frame and
suspension designed to accommodate a range of power sources -- all-gasoline
engines, hybrids, or all-electric systems powered by either batteries or fuel
cells -- as well as a variety of body styles.
The theory is that GM could sell a vehicle like the Triax in widely varying
markets around the world. It could pop in a hybrid or an all-electric power
plant in regions where gasoline is expensive, such as Europe and Asia. It could
install a traditional internal-combustion engine in places where gas is cheap,
such as the U.S. As for the exterior, GM could bolt on a sedan body in one
market and an SUV or pickup-truck shell in another.
All this would help GM spread the huge costs of developing new
environmental technologies over more vehicles, said Robert C. Purcell Jr.,
GM's executive director for advanced-technology vehicles. The Triax "is as
much about the business of advanced-technology vehicles as about the
technology," he said.
But the future of GM's concept is unclear. So far, GM's primary experience in
marketing green vehicles is the EV1, an electric-powered car that has sold
poorly, largely because of its short range between battery charges. Mr. Purcell
says many of the lessons the EV1 taught GM about electric-vehicle technology
have been applied to the Triax, which has a gas engine and transmission built
by Suzuki Motor Corp. While Mr. Purcell says GM has "a lot of work going
on" to commercialize a vehicle based on the Triax, he won't say when such an
auto might go into production.
Other auto makers already have announced their hybrid plans. Honda plans to
become the first auto maker to sell a hybrid in the U.S. when its Insight coupe
goes on sale in this country in December. Then, next spring or summer, Toyota
plans to start selling its own hybrid, the Prius sedan, in the U.S. Toyota already
sells the Prius in Japan.
The second-generation hybrid concept that Toyota is displaying at the Tokyo
show broadly resembles GM's Triax in that each vehicle delivers power to
both its axles. Toyota's Prius and Honda's Insight each uses its hybrid system
to power only the front axle.
-- Norihiko Shirouzu in Tokyo contributed to this article.
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