GM still behind the curve

General Motors, CEO Rick Wagoner feels, despite the success Toyota and Honda have had marketing their hybrid vehicles, it's hard to have a business model for hybrids. Despite promising improvement for GM in the upcoming year, it's hard to see any vision when it comes to improving the GM line of vehicles when they seem to want to avoid the trends.

The first true full hybrid (Saturn Vue) shouldn't be ready until late next year.

Industry Report: Dec. 19, 2005 - The Car Connection:

In a wide-ranging conversation, Wagoner said he expects oil prices will do some "bouncing around" in 2006, though he expects that things should level out in the $50 to $60 per barrel range. That is "another argument…for production flexibility," he said, which would give GM the ability to shift from larger, high-power cars and trucks, to smaller, more fuel-efficient models, according to market demands. GM is betting that there will still be strong demand for full-size pickups, such as the Tahoe. But it is also hoping to cover its bases with the planned roll-out of new hybrid-electric vehicles. The automaker's first true hybrid, a gasoline-electric version of the Saturn Vue, will debut next year, not long after the Tahoe. Wagoner said it is still difficult to make a good business case for hybrids, in part because there's no clear sense of how high demand will go for the high-mileage technology. -Paul A. Eisenstein

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