Recently we told you there was some information that GM was planning an E-Flex surprise for us in January at the Detroit Auto Show (prior post). This was not verified, but reliable.
Yesterday the GMinsidenews forum published a brief interview with Jill Lajdiak who is GM’s Saturn brand manager. Among other points of discussion, this interchange took place:
GMI: Fuel economy and alternative fuels are becoming a big factor in car buyers’ decisions. What direction is the Saturn Green Line going to take when it comes to future propulsion?
JL: We currently offer our BAS hybrid system in the Aura and Vue Green Line models. We’ve announced that we’ll offer a full two-mode hybrid and plug-in in a future Vue model. And keep your eyes open at this year’s Detroit show for another surprise.
So, you can see, green technologies are very important to our brand.
So we have heard there will be an E-Flex surprise in January, and we now hear there will be a fuel economy Saturn surprise in January.
We are not here to start rumors, but dispel them, so you do the math.
Thanks to Brian M. for the tip.
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2007 at 9:43 am and is filed under Brand, E-Flex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Nov 10th, 2007 (10:50 am)I think it’s been said before, but considering that Saturn already has 2 green SUV lines, I wouldn’t bet against an E-flex Sky.
The car is small and light, and at this time would be a good candidate for a plug-in.
Nov 10th, 2007 (11:07 am)An E-Flex Sky/Solstice would be awesome. One could get Insight-ish (or better) fuel economy out of a sports car, rather than an Insight-ish penalty box. I know plenty of people who have bought old Miatas for use as commuter vehicles, so the market should be there.
Nov 10th, 2007 (11:50 am)John A is correct in his thinking. Since the mid 60′s people have wanted a small personal car. Thus the Mustang was born and the other companies followed suit.
Gone are the days of everyone having a 300 h.p. power plant to race with from stop light to stop light.
I’ve read in the recent Motor Trend “gossip” section that the Volt may well wear Cadillac badging. Which means to me that it will be more expensive for the common person to own and help eliminate or reduce our need for fossil fuels as a transportation means.
Nov 10th, 2007 (12:01 pm)I’m sure that E-flex will eventually move to all of GM’s production lines, including Cadillac. Someone here has even mentioned an E-flex Corvette. Just imagine that. An electric drive Vette with a big beefy AC induction motor would smoke anything on the road with four wheels. They would sell like hotcakes.
Nov 10th, 2007 (12:29 pm)I was one of the people that mentioned the Corvette. I think if this plug-in technology goes in every car that GM makes, they won’t have to worry about CAFE. I’ve seen how fast killacycle goes. I also heard of an electric car that beat a Porsche and Ferrari on the 1/4 mile. A plug-in Corvette would scream, I would think.
Bring it on GM. The oil companies are screwing you good. It is time to give it back to them.
Nov 10th, 2007 (2:28 pm)Richard @ 4:
IMO the Volt looks quite a bit like a CTS… hopefully the e-flex line is a success and will cross all brands.
Nov 10th, 2007 (2:39 pm)In order for GM to sell 60-100K E-Flex vehicles in the first year, they will have to offer it in several flavors.
Nov 10th, 2007 (2:45 pm)I have been telling everyone for monmths now that Saturn and Pontiac would be the next in line for an E-flex model – they are the natural small car divisions, so it makes perfect sense. People who drive Cadillacs generally aren’t greatly affected by gas prices. I’ve been predicting a small Saturn SUV and a Pontaic that either a sporty E-Flex or possibly small crossover,
with sporty model the most likely and right up Pontiac’s alley. That may make me pause before committing to the Chevy version.
Nov 10th, 2007 (3:16 pm)The FWD GM Delta platform is what E-Flex is based on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Delta_platform
Regardless of the rumors, I would like to see how a RWD E-Flex would manifest itself. Shifting the electric motor to the rear axle would be a rather natural transition. It would completely avoid the need for a driveshaft running along the chassis’s central tunnel. That’s where the battery pack is anyway, and adapting a RWD vehicle’s tunnel to hold a battery pack would be easy compared to building a tunnel de novo for the FWD Delta platform.
Meanwhile, you could keep the ICE and electric motor inverter up at the front.
Nov 10th, 2007 (4:07 pm)Certainly the Volt needs to have a form factor that is able to appeal to the masses, but I’d love to see a niche Saturn vehicle come ou that is smaller and focuses on a low coefficient of drag, say similar to what Mercedes Benz has designed in its boxfish bionic inspired concept vehicle: http://www.dancewithshadows.com/auto/mercedes-benz-bionic-car-gallery.asp Now that would get some range out of a battery pack! Cd of 0.19. Almost as good as that much more funky Aptera’s.
Nov 10th, 2007 (4:08 pm)I think we’re starting to see that if CAFE holds firm despite the objections of automakers, it’ll be a better insurance policy for the proliferation of EV’s than the yo-yo price of crude.
Once these things are on the road “purchased” as opposed to “leased” there will be no turning back.
M.
Nov 10th, 2007 (4:16 pm)I’m completely behind the Volt as a regular sedan, but I don’t think it would make for a good sports car.
Look at the Tesla, it’s purpose-built to be a pretty extreme sports car and it can’t keep up with the Vette 0-60. Plus Tesla conveniently doesn’t publish quarter-mile times, which means they must suck. Plus the Vette can be driven at 10/10ths all day long as long as you keep filling it with gas. The Tesla would run out of battery power after a few laps and the Volt would become limited to the amount of power its ICE supplies, i.e., not much.
Aside to AES: FWD seems almost necessary for E-Flex if you want a robust regen braking system.
Nov 10th, 2007 (6:33 pm)While I do believe the “Saturn suprise” will be a Tesla killing Sky, I really do hope it’s something more practical like the Vue.
Nov 10th, 2007 (6:49 pm)I’d like a nice regular-looking Saturn sedan.
Nov 10th, 2007 (7:00 pm)@ Tom:
The point would not be an electric Sky Redline but rather a Greenline version that delivers similar performance to the regular gasser with better fuel mileage. I doubt anyone would be expecting Corvette performance out of it.
Nov 10th, 2007 (7:05 pm)Tom at #12: I am trying to understand this:
Are you saying a RxEV Corvette would not be as powerful as the existing Corvette of today?
If so, can it be by putting a bigger ICE that can charge the battery faster? Or will the ICE have to be so big, that it would be pointless to put an electric motor in the car?
I personally think the entire line of GM vehicles should be RxEVs. But is it practical to do so? I don’t know.
Thanks.
Nov 10th, 2007 (8:37 pm)Rashiid, I think most people who buy Corvettes or similar cars are just interested in occasionally flooring it on a freeway on-ramp, in which case a sporty RxEV would be great. But if you’re talking literally about a “sports car,” i.e., a car that’s designed for motorsports, i.e., driving around a track, then I think the limitations of a battery pack are potentially insurmountable. But I guess it depends on how long the track is, how many laps you’re driving, etc. Who knows. I guess my point is that in some cases no electric vehicle is going to be as good as a gas sports car.
I am also REALLY interested to know why Tesla isn’t publishing quarter mile times. That’s super super shady…
Nov 10th, 2007 (8:49 pm)I hope they will announce the e-flex saturn astra.
Nov 10th, 2007 (8:53 pm)The astra may be insipid now but with e-flex it will be very fast on the on ramp..
Nov 10th, 2007 (9:50 pm)I know for a fact that all electric motors are perfect for when you need torque. The expression that ‘horsepower sells car, but torque wins races’ is more of an expression about physics than racing. But seeing that in reality, horsepower is still needed to go crazy fast when racing, although horsepower comes easier from an ICE, would it be preferable for a sports car to be a PHEV or HEV rather than an RxEV, so that way you get both?
I think it may be, but at the same time, it is also something of a moot point when you’re talking about real cars in the real world. You know, production cars, not racers. Race cars can always be, and often are, retrofitted for superior performance. But production cars, including not only the Sky/Soltice, but also the Camaro and Corvette, do not need to have 1000 hp and 600 ft-lb of torque.
Then, thinking about the market, I think that the E-flex surprise may end up being the Sky. Roadsters that can be commuter cars are probably a good market to go after, and with E-flex, the people of still drive what are in comparison gas-guzzling Miatas, Mustangs, S2000s, and so on, may be secretly chomping at the bit to have their cake and eat it too.
But then maybe we’re dreaming of a solution for the wrong market, and it’ll end up being a curveball thrown to the Outlook, or less extreme, the Aura. It’s exciting, though. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Nov 11th, 2007 (5:33 am)The Volt and the Astra are both on the Delta platform. The Sky is on the Kappa platform. Presumably an ASTRA RxEV would be and easier extension of the Volt?
Nov 11th, 2007 (6:05 am)Nick,
The Vue is on the Epsilon platform (Opel Vectra) and the europeans do seem to be talking about an e-flex Vectra. A larger 4 door saloon like the Vue would reach a lot of one car families.
Time will tell.
Nov 11th, 2007 (9:38 am)The Tesla claims a 0-60 time of under 4 seconds. That’s fast. An E-Flex Sky would probably be in the range of 7 seconds (based on the Volt estimates).
Then again, an E-Flex Sky wouldn’t cost $100k and be limited to just 250 miles…
Please make it a Saturn Flextreme instead.
Nov 11th, 2007 (1:23 pm)I can’t help but laugh at those who claim “the oil companies are screwing you.”
Oil companies do NOT set the price of poil – that is set by the futures market, which in turn is used for private deals between the poil compnaies and oil royalty holders.
Funny how eyars ago, when gasoline was 90 cents and oil companies wer starving, they didn’t have this supposed ability to set prices, but now that hoggish human consumers are using more oil than is being pumped, they suddenly have “learned” how
to set prices, Gee, funny how they knew back during the oil crisis of ’73, then apparently forgot, and now havbe learned again. High oil prices generate more idiotic theories than a dozen JFK assassinations. Want to know why prices are high ? Look at the demand you gluttons are
providing. YOU are the reason for high oil prices – blaming the oil companies is nothing more than a silly attempt by you gas hogs to shift the blame. Doesn’t anubody ever take responsibility for their actions anymore?
Nov 11th, 2007 (3:58 pm)Kent at #24:
“Want to know why prices are high ? Look at the demand you gluttons are
providing. YOU are the reason for high oil prices”
Only us Kent? Not you too?
I work for the traders and I agree with you, however it is not just them. This past summer, during the height of gasoline usage, the gas companies decided to take down some refineries for maintenance. Seems to me they would do that during a slow period like most companies would do. But no, they saw an opportunity to make prices higher.
And let’s not forget the record profits of
Exxon Mobil.
Nov 11th, 2007 (4:45 pm)I am hoping GM provides a E-Flex prototype based on vehicle size of the Saturn Vue. Need to show that E-Flex can be solution for a small SUV, which is large market in US. With a small SUV it would require larger battery and range extender, but would be powerful message to show the strength of the E-Flex design.
Nov 12th, 2007 (8:33 am)reply to Kent #24
If I’m not mistaken an oil company bought the rights to the nickel metal battery from GM and pretty much killed the electric car for about 10 years. I believe some of the blame can go on oil companys. CW
Nov 12th, 2007 (11:15 am)Think about it… Why would GM release a vehicle to compete with an already existing vehicle? Don’t plan on an E-Flex Saturn Sky or even more rediculous E-Flex Corvette.
Given GM’s propensity to rebadge Opels as Saturns the most likely surprise will be something akin to a Saturn Flextreme (based on the Opel Flextreme). This would settle the demand that’s being created for an E-Flex people mover that’s a little roomier and a little less flashy than the Volt.
Nov 20th, 2007 (1:11 pm)you suck ass
Nov 30th, 2007 (5:03 pm)hello…
usefull…