Thursday, May 18, 2006

Being right is better than being first.

GM has unveiled their new fuel savings plan. GM unveiled the first 6 cylinder engine with cylinder deactivation. It will be a 3.9L engine which will exist in the new Impala to start off with. This is supposed to increase gas mileage by 5%. The new Green Line Vue will save 20% gas on average and only be a $2000 option. If you spent $2000 on gas a year, you could recoup your spending in 5 years time. With Gas prices rising the time to recoup costs would decrease significantly. The Chevy Tahoe will soon have a new hybrid system developed with BMW. "It's fun to be first in an early-stage technology. It's more important to be right, and I think we have a well-thought out approach," he said. "I think (the Vue and the Tahoe) will show people that we can play with anybody on technology. We'll see how the market plays out."

1 comment:

LymanSS said...

Just a small technical point; GM's new 3.9 liter V6 is not the first V6 with cylinder deactivation. It may be the first one from GM, but Honda has had a V6 with cylinder deactivation in the Accord Hybrid since the car's introduction. Of course the automotive press seldom mentions this fact, preferring to attribute any fuel efficiency gains to the hybrid drivetrain rather than to such mundain fuel saving measures as cylinder deactivation. Hopefully we'll see more widespread use of cost effective measures such as cylinder deactivation in the near future. In the mean time it seems GM is hedging its bets with the hybrid Vue Green Line Hybrid.