To: stanley new who wrote (4633 ) 1/4/1998 10:44:00 PM From: J.E.Currie Respond to of 14226
Sunday January 4 4:36 PM EST GM: Clean vehicles ready if market right DETROIT, Jan. 4 (UPI) _ General Motors Corp. says it's ready to mass produce a family of low-emission, alternative vehicles, but needs support from consumers and government regulators to succeed. GM Chairman Jack Smith discussed the challenge while rolling out longer-range versions of its currently available EV1 electric car and S- 10 electric pickup truck today at the Detroit auto show. GM also introduced a prototype fuel cell vehicle that could be in dealerships by 2004, a hybrid turbine-electric car to be sold by 2001, the world's first hybrid fuel sports car and a vehicle running on compressed natural gas. Other big automakers _ including Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda are moving in the same direction, with similar timetables. Smith says as the world's largest automaker, GM has learned much since introducing the EV1 last year in California and Arizona. It's the first modern, mass marketed electric car. Last fall GM began selling the electric S-10. Only a few hundred EV1s were sold in 1997. But GM says its powertrain and braking systems laid the foundation for more alternative vehicles. New EV1s and S-10s will be equipped with high-tech batteries, providing a per-charge range of 140 miles per charge in the city, 160 miles on the highway. Smith says marketing for the new vehicles would depend on ''the global transportation infrastructure, affordability and customer acceptance of new technology.'' Referring to the recent Kyoto, Japan, climate agreement, Smith warned against mandatory emissions targets and dates. He says, ''Innovation, not regulation, is the answer to reducing emissions.''