GM going 80% hybrid by 2020

GM vice president and automotive industry maverick, Bob Lutz, has announced his vision of an 80% hybrid vehicles proportional representation in the company's product portfolio by 2020.

Although Lutz has at times been criticised by environmentalists for his dismissive views on global warming, the father of the Dodge Viper, and one of the most flamboyant automotive industry executives ever is steering GM on an environmentally benevolent path.

Lutz has criticised the politicising of fuel economy figure targets during Presidential electioneering in the US too.

He feels US fuel prices should be brought inline with the rest of the world. This would necessitate American consumers to buy smaller, more efficient cars, instead of pressuring manufacturers into applying incredibly expensive fuel-saving technologies into cars at high costs, which consumers are hardly keen to be burdened with.

With the federal fuel economy quota being set at a targeted 14 km per litre by 2020, gas guzzling American SUV profits seem to be doomed. GM has been to the challenge, with 15% of the company's vehicles sold to be hybrids by 2015.

The two-mode hybrid - an internal combustion engine combined with an electric motor driving a dual automatic transmission - is to be key in this endeavour.

Pertaining to the South African market, with its extraordinarily lackadaisical environmental automotive regulation, more efficient Petrol and Diesel engines will be the future for now, with bio-fuel enabled vehicles entering the fray as infrastructure comes up to standard.