GM To Launch Hybrid SUV

Detroit January 8, 2006; The AIADA newsletter reported that General Motors has joined the hybrid craze, and will unveil two hybrid SUV models at the North American International Auto Show.

One of the new models, the Saturn Vue Green Line, will retail for under $23,000 when it goes on sale this summer. "People will be very surprised at the kind of price you get in a hybrid and that it will deliver very pleasing performance and 20 percent (better) fuel economy," GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner told The Detroit News.

According to the paper, “Online auto research site Edmunds.com estimates hybrids could double their market share this year from 1.2 percent in 2005, and consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates forecasts a 4 percent share for the segment by 2012.”

Last year, Toyota accounted for more than half of the hybrid vehicles sold in the U.S.