70 mpg Saturn Vue PHEV?

[Dr Mordrid]

Reports are coming out of the GM Milford testing grounds that the coming Saturn Vue 2-mode plug-in LiION hybrid SUV could well get a highway mileage rating of 70 mpg. This is not speculation; they have been running 11 fully integrated mules for quite some time and the results are now being leaked.

The Vue is slated to be released in early 2010.

What's more interesting is that this 2-mode system is a compact front wheel drive unit. Previous 2-modes have been rear wheel drive for large engines & used on vehicles like the Tahoe SUV hybrid. Such a FWD unit could find its way into a much wider range of products, and quickly.

2-modes work by placing the electric motors within a standard form-factor transmision case with special gearing, a battery and special engine/tranny computer. This allows them to be retrofitted into many existing models instead of having to build a whole new vehicle.

[rylan]

Quite interesting.
It sure would be nice to see GM flood the market with high mileage vehicles in a few years and make a comeback.

[cjolley]

How could it get 70mpg highway and have that much frontal area?
Doesn't hybrid tech have much more to do with city stop/go driving than highway?
Or does it just get that until the battery runs out?

GM has a consistent history of promising high tech that doesn't pan out in production.
But, one can hope...

[Gurm]

Yes, I think "plug-in hybrid" pretty much means that you charge the battery and get 70mpg for the next X hundred miles.

[Dr Mordrid]

A larger LiION battery than the standard Vue hybrids NiMH is integrated into the 2-mode hybrid system and controllers switch the vehicle between pure EV (available at both low and high speeds) and the ICE, or use both simultaneously, depending on the needs of the moment.

EV power & generation is provided by two 3-phase 100 kw motors inside the tranny case with 2 advanced planetary gear sets and 2 selectively-engaging clutches. The external 300v LiION battery is leveraged strongly to provide enhanced high speed and towing capabilities.

This 2-mode system was co-developed by GM, Chrysler, Daimler and BMW over a period of several years and has very large advantages for mid-sized and larger vehicles including big trucks in that it can handle large engines, has strong towing capabilities and can operate at high speed bands.

GM's generic claim for non-plugin 2-mode is that it can double the MPG of many vehicles, and that was proven with the Tahoe which had its city rating go from 12 to 21 mpg. The new system extends the gains into high speed modes.

[rylan]

Lets just hope the LiON battery tech they're using can handle a high number of charge/discharge cycles without quickly losing its storage capacity after several hundred cycles.

[Dr Mordrid]

It'll probably be the A123 or LG chemistry. In either case they use nanomaterial electrodes (low resistance/far higher fire resistance) and a chemistry far different from the ones you're used to seeing. A123's is so stable you can drive a spike through it without causing a fire. Both have gone through 3rd party qualifications and both score lifetimes measured as exceeding 15 years. A123's is already in use in LiION power tools and in Daimler's hybrid buses.

[gt40]

How could it get 70mpg highway and have that much frontal area?

Because it gets 70 mpg on a dyno.

[Dr Mordrid]

So far, but don't expect that blunt end to last as the mules aren't the production vehicle.