The Gear Shift

Hummer HX Concept -- Click image for photo gallery

Just got back from GM and am feeling re-invigorated. Rick Wagoner and his team seem to really get it. All the companies have been talking about making more fuel-efficient vehicles and helping the environment, but GM seems to be going the farthest in doing something about it.

They are still working diligently on their hybrid and plug-in technologies, but recognize with hybrids having only a 1% market share that it will take 12 years to replace all the vehicles on the road.

GM believes the answer is flex-fuel vehicles, those that run on ethanol/E85. And, not only are they planning to have 25 flex-fuel models in 2008, they recognize that we need a sustainable way to produce ethanol. So, they have forged a partnership with a company called Coskata that has a proprietary way to create ethanol that costs less than $1/gallon. And, they can make it from agricultural or plastic waste, even old tires. Use of ethanol instead of gasoline can reduce emissions up to 84%. Cheaper, less pollution – what’s not to love?

So, with that, they launched two cool new concepts with flex-fuel engines, the Hummer HX (Who would have ever thought that Hummer and fuel-economy would ever go together?) and the Saab 9.4X Biopower.

Genius.  I may just consider GM for my next car. (Happy, Patrick?)

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