GM's Saturn Vue plug-in could precede Volt

By Jui Chakravorty Das

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could launch a plug-in version of the Saturn Vue crossover in 2010, possibly making it the first commercially available electric vehicle, a GM executive said on Monday.

"It could precede the Volt," GM's head of North American operations, Troy Clarke, told reporters at the North American International Auto Show, referring to GM's much-touted concept electric car, which it hopes to produce by the end of 2010.

"For the Volt we are re-engineering an entire vehicle to be optimally designed to support the architecture," Clarke said.

"At the Saturn Vue we are adapting an electric drive system to an existing architecture. It's a quicker way to do it."

Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, plug-ins are designed for short trips powered entirely by an electric motor and a battery charged through a socket at home.

Automakers say lithium-ion technology remains the biggest challenge in producing a plug-in as they try to lower the cost of the batteries and boost their power and storage capacity.

But GM product chief Bob Lutz said on Monday that the battery technology has shown no problems so far and a working lithium ion battery pack for the Volt could be demonstrated by June 2008.

He said the time-consuming part of the development process would be the complete re-engineering of the vehicle.