Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP), the company with plans to convert hundreds of Saturn Sky roadsters from gas to electric power, appear to have a prototype doing some on-the-road testing. A video on YouTube shows a black "AMP" whizzing down the road and the cameraman announcing "...wards [sic] us is the AMP Saturn Sky. Totally electric. This is our fourth test drive." The car comes to a halt in front of the camera and the hood is immediately opened to reveal the gas engine has been replaced with black boxes with orange wires going to them. The car sports the word "electric" in chrome letters on the side of the front fender.

If the car is true to the original design specifications, it is powered by lithium phosphate batteries sending current to twin brushless DC motors, one for each back wheel. They hope to hit 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds, have a range of 150 miles and a top speed of 90 mph. The company is now taking pre-orders for the first 300 vehicles. A $10,000 down payment goes towards the $25,000 conversion price tag which, of course, doesn't include the car. If you already possess a Saturn Sky you can have it converted instead of buying one for the purpose. One last catch? In order to provide after-sale service, the offer is only open to residents of the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area, the home of the company. Video pudding proof after the break.

[Source: YouTube / Advanced Mechanical Products]

A row of Saturn Vue PHEVs in Milford's building 16 garage

GM may have been late to the party when it came to hybrids, but they are now throwing resources at a bunch of different parallel paths that including electric drive. There are already cars and CUVs with mild hybrid systems and full-size SUVs with Two-Mode hybrid systems. Later this fall pickup trucks and Saturn Vues will also get the Two-Mode system. Then there is of course the E-Flex Chevy Volt. Sometime around the end of 2009 GM's first plug-hybrid should debut also in the shape of the Vue. At the Plug-In 2008 conference Larry Nitz, the Executive Director of the hybrid powertrain engineering at GM provided an updated on the Vue PHEV program. After initiating development with nickel metal hydride batteries, the team based in Building 16 at the Milford proving ground now has 11 plug-in Vues running with lithium ion batteries. If the PHEV Vue makes it by the end of next year it will likely be the first commercially available plug-in hybrid from a major carmaker. The Vue is expected to have about 10 miles of electric driving range on a full charge.

[Source: GM Fastlane Blog]

Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery

The Saturn Vue was the first hybrid model from General Motors and has lived on through an entire model cycle. For 2008, the Vue was completely redesigned, though the mild hybrid system was carried over with few changes. We think that the new model is rather attractive, so it gets points for style. The fact that it uses a lower-tech hybrid system brings it back down, though. There will be a new 2-Mode Vue hybrid available shortly, but it's not out yet, so we're sticking with the mild unit (someday, a plug-in version will be available as well). Still the 5kW motor/generator is able to make a decent improvement in fuel economy. According to the EPA, the non-hybrid Vue manages 19 mpg in the city and 26 on the highway. Total estimated cost for a year's worth of fuel is $2,757. The hybrid version manages 25 in the city and a whopping 32 on the highway, which should result in a savings of about $600 in a year. The Vue gets extra brownie points for coming in at just $25,370. That price makes it the cheapest hybrid SUV on our list. Still, we think there's a better option. This one.

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Two-Mode Vue

Ever since the initial hybrid version of the Saturn Vue, the "different kind of company" chose to go its own way by badging its fuel-saving wares as Green Lines. This designation will be going the way of the Dodo in favor of the much more simple and recognizable designation of simply "hybrid." The reasoning is that the Green Line badge adds unnecessary confusion to Saturn's line of vehicles and is too long for marketing purposes. This becomes especially true as General Motors rolls out new versions of its hybrid technology. Soon, the Saturn Vue will be granted the sophisticated 2-Mode technology as is used on full-size SUVs from GM such as the GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade. While the current Vue is well priced considering its decent fuel mileage of 25 mpg in the city and 32 on the highway, the new 2-Mode model will be capable of powering the vehicle on electricity alone and should be available in 2009.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

Since Saturn has essentially become the U.S. arm of Opel, and all the new models (aside from the Outlook crossover) are essentially re-badged Opels, the big question is, "what next?" With sales of larger trucks and SUVs in complete collapse and carmakers scrambling to shift production to smaller cars, Opel has a model that might be a perfect fit, the Agila. The Agila is developed and built jointly with Suzuki and is sold as the Splash by the Japanese brand. The Agila is powered by three and four cylinder engines of 1.0L and 1.2L displacements.

It's unknown if the Agila is even close to being able to pass U.S. safety standards. However, GM will begin producing engines in the U.S. next year that fall into that size range so there will be U.S.-certified engines that would fit. The Agila could potentially make a very interesting competitor to the Smart ForTwo, VW up! and Toyota iQ. The Agila is built in Poland which may make it an affordable option for the U.S. market. The 1.2L version is rated at a combined 42.8mpg (U.S.) with the 1.0L version scores 47mpg (U.S.).

[Source: BurlappCars.com]

Click for a high res gallery of Bob's Saturn EV Coupe

Usually when I sit down at my laptop to write an article I find ideas after perusing my several hundred RSS feeds or the media sites from manufacturers, or going to a car show. Every once in a while they just sort of fall into my lap. Such was the case this afternoon when Bob Gurk pulled into my driveway. I was pulling the lawn mower out of the shed when Bob walked through my back gate and inquired if I was the person with the little Mercedes. It turns out he was asking about the Smart diesel that I had been driving a couple of months ago. After explaining that it was a vehicle I had been reviewing he asked if I wanted to check out his electric car. We headed out to the driveway and sitting there was a gold first-generation Saturn SC coupe from the early '90s. Bob and I started talking about the car and he explained that he decided to build it about a year ago after seeing "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Follow the jump to learn more about this conversion.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery

It's no secret that General Motors' hybrid sales are nothing to brag about, especially when compared to cross-town rival Ford and, especially, cross-ocean rival Toyota. While the overall sales direction is positive, sales were most certainly negatively impacted by a problem with battery packs manufactured by Cobasys which were intended for installation in mild hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Vue and Saturn Aura. According to reports, some nine-thousand batteries had to be recalled and replaced due to an internal leak which made the entire pack inoperable. Although the vehicles themselves would still operate, the hybrid system would not.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson put it well when he said, "I don't know how many hybrids we could have sold, but we would have had at least 9,000 more batteries for the pipeline." There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel, though, as Cobasys claims to have resolved the problem and Chevrolet reports that production of the 2009 Malibu hybrid is on target for June 23.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Click the Volt for a high-res gallery

Round and round we go... where we stop, nobody knows! That sounds like an apt description of the merry-go-round that is the Chevrolet Volt, especially when pricing and delivery date are concerned. Perhaps what we are witnessing in this case is the first truly transparent product launch in history. Do major shifts like this happen with all vehicles, or is the new technology needed to make the Volt a reality causing pricing headaches for GM management? Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the case, GM CEO Jim Wagoner has been quoted on Forbes as suggesting that General Motors will be selling an electric car for less than $30,000 by the year 2010.

Another possible explanation for this pricing confusion could involve the upcoming plug-in Saturn Vue. How can we be sure that Wagoner was referring to the Volt when he cited the pricing and deadline of the electric vehicle? We can't. It's possible that GM could have a plug-in Vue ready for the market in 2010 with an electric-only mode, making it an electric car of sorts. We'll just need to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the Volt's, and the Vue's, debut.

[Source: Forbes]

Thanks to a tip from a reader, we've been introduced to a new electric sports car maker based in Cincinnati, Ohio: Advanced Mechanical Products. AMP has taken a major shortcut to offering its first electric vehicle by starting with a gas-powered Saturn Sky as the base. Out goes the GM Ecotec four-banger, in goes an electric motor and lithium phosphate batteries. According to the manufacturer, the electric car will accelerate to sixty miles per hour in less than six seconds and have a top speed of around ninety miles per hour. A full charge will give a range of up to one-hundred-fifty miles. The company is currently accepting orders for the first batch of three-hundred cars, which will cost around $50,000 each.

For those who want an electric car conversion but can't make do with a two-seat sportscar platform, AMP says that its next two projects will center around a Saturn SUV and a Saturn sedan. Sounds like they have an affinity for the Saturn brand, huh? We look forward to finding out more information about AMP and its new vehicle, and you can be sure that we'll keep you informed with whatever information we get.

[Source: AMP, thanks for the tip, Bryan!]

Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery

Back in mid-2006, GM rolled out its first mainstream production hybrid, the Saturn Vue Green Line, fairly late in its product life cycle. That one featured the first iteration of the mild GM Hybrid system. It was in production for less than a year before the first-gen Vue went away in favor of an all-new global design that was developed in a cooperative arrangement between GM engineers in North America, South Korea and Europe. The same body style is sold in Europe and other parts of the world as the Opel Antara. A second version with different styling and a lower level of content is sold in most of the world as the Chevy Captiva.

The second-generation Vue debuted in North America in late spring of 2007 and the new Green Line hybrid model came along about six months later. The old Vue was the last Saturn to follow the original model of a metal structure with plastic body panels. That setup has now been abandoned in favor of a metal body and it pays big dividends in fit and finish but we'll come back to that. The Vue falls into the burgeoning compact crossover class, and is currently one of only two hybrids in the segment (the other is the Ford Escape). Find out how the Vue compares after the jump.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Following his speech to the Commonwealth Club a few days ago, GM CEO Rick Wagoner apparently told reporters that a second E-Flex platform vehicle was also under development at the company's Warren MI technical center alongside the Chevy Volt. This second ER-EV is destined for the Opel (and presumably Saturn) brand. Following the debut of the Volt in January 2007, GM has shown two other E-Flex concepts, the Opel/Saturn Flextreme and the Cadillac Provoq. The Provoq is expected to make the production transition in 2009 as a conventionally-powered crossover.

The Flextreme, however, carries some of the design language of the new Opel Insignia that was recently revealed. The significantly more aerodynamic Flextreme also carries the hatchback/wagon type body shape that is more popular in Europe. An Opel-badged model would likely have an appearance similar to the Flextreme but with more conventional style body openings and without the pair of Segways in the back. It's unknown at this point what type of range extender would be used with the Opel although the concept used a diesel.

So far we've only found one source for this report of a second E-Flex vehicle and we're still waiting to hear back from GM for any confirmation or comments on any of this. As soon as we here back we'll provide updates.

[Source: Green Car Congress]

Hybrids help you save gas at the pump, this is something we all know. We also know why burning less gasoline is good: fewer greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere, it reduces our dependence on foreign oil and we spend less money at the pump. However, there is always the question about what is the overall impact of using a hybrid versus using a non-hybrid version. There are currently 17 hybrid models available in the U. S. market and all but one have a corresponding non-hybrid counterpart to compare with. As part of our Earth Day coverage today, we took a closer look at the following two questions:

• Question #1: How far can we drive with a hybrid powertrain compared to a non-hybrid?
• Question #2: When will the hybrid investment pay for itself through gas savings?

Before we go to the complete list let me explain the criteria we used. First of all we chose the "economy" powertrains, when we had the option. Therefore we'll be comparing mostly 4-cylinder models. In the case of SUVs, we chose the AWD/4WD versions. For a few models, we've compared them to the European diesel versions data, although this should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the EU's different driving cycles. Finally, we used $3.5/gal as the price of gasoline and added the car's MRSP price. Don't forget that some of these vehicles will qualify for various tax breaks, so you might have to recalculate our numbers for yourself. Got all that? Good, let's see the results (after the jump).

Click the Astra for a high res gallery

The launch of the new Saturn Astra marked a turning point for GM's youngest brand as it finally abandoned the idea of making a different kind of American small car to compete with imports. The Astra is in fact an import produced in Europe by Opel. For its initial production run, Saturn is only offering the car with one engine, a 1.8L four cylinder, and a choice of either a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic transmission. Here at ABG we've only had a couple of brief opportunities to drive the new Astra and we'll try to get one for a full review soon. In the meantime, there are two other reviews up right now. Our pal Chris over on the Autoblog side of the house just had one and Canadian Driver also published their review. As Saturn's smallest car, the Astra would be expected to be efficient and compared to many cars on the road in the US right now it is. But context is everything. Chris managed to achieve 28mg during his week with the car while our colleagues to the north got 29.4mpg. Chris was actually impressed by the mileage beating all the other cars he has tested over the past year. Among cars available to Americans it's not in Prius territory, but it's not shabby. The Canadians on the other hand are used to significantly higher gas prices and more fuel efficient cars. As such, they saw the similar mileage as somewhat disappointing - which it is in comparison to what Euro Astra's can achieve with even smaller engines and diesels. Next year, the U.S. Astra will get a smaller 1.4L turbo engine with similar power to the current unit but improved economy and, hopefully, the four speed automatic will also go away in favor of a six speed.


All photos Copyright ©2008 Chris Shunk / Weblogs, Inc.
[Sources: Autoblog, Canadian Driver]

There's been a lot of hype surrounding the hybrid SUV offerings from the domestic automakers, most noticeably the Ford Escape hybrids and the Chevy Tahoe/GMC Yukon hybrids. These hybrid SUVs are great at generating good press for the companies and ads like the award-winning Kermit "It is easy being green" spot for the Escape hybrid get customers excited about the vehicles. But what happens when customers try to go and buy one of these vehicles? How about finding out that, if they can even get a hold of a Ford Escape hybrid, they'll need to pay $11,000 more than if they were buying a non-hybrid Escape. As NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports, some dealers are slapping a $5,000 price premium on the Ford Escape hybrids, this is on top of the standard hybrid premium.

Even at $3.50 a gallon, eleven grand buys a lot of gas (just over 3,142 gallons, to be exact). Let's say you get 22 mpg with the standard escape (seems like a fair number to me). You'll be able to drive almost 70,000 miles before you see can even start chipping away at the hybrid premium difference. If you're looking for other large hybrids, the news isn't much better. Shogren found that the Saturn Vue is basically unavailable outside of California and there are only 1,500 hybrid Tahoes available across the U.S. right now. Test drives are available, but if you're interested in more than that, good luck.


[Source: Elizabeth Shogren / NPR]

Smartlets. Sounds like a new, electrolyte-filled candy or something you plug into your MacBook. Instead, Smartlets are one idea that would provide power to plug-in electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt or the Saturn Vue.
Partners Richard Lowenthal, CEO of California-based Coulomb Technologies, and Praveen Mandal will describe Smartlets to attendees of the Plug-In Car show in San Jose, California this July. According to Automotive News, Loenthal envisions Smartlets available for EVs and PHEVs in urban areas where people normally park their cars: parking lots, offices, stores, etc. Of course, Smartlet-like chargers are already available (for free) in some areas, like London.

GM likes the idea, but is taking a hands-off approach, but GM's vice president of global program management. Jon Lauckner, told Lowenthal and Mandal last fall that Smartlets are "a good idea." Of course, even though the Vue and the Volt are likely to be among the first plug-in vehicles available from a large automaker, Smarlets would probably be compatible with many plug-in vehicles, at least those that use a standard plug and can accept 110 or 220 volts. We'll need a wait a while to here more about Smartets. The Coulomb Technologies website says the company "is currently in quiet mode."

[Source: Jamie LaReau / Automotive News]