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DETROIT, AUGUST, 26: General Motors Corp. and Daimler Chrysler AG has confirmed they will jointly develop fuel-saving hybrid engines in hopes of cashing in on an expanding market now dominated by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Under the agreement announced in December and formalized Monday, GM will be the lead designer of hybrid engines for rear-wheel and all wheel-drive full-size trucks and sport utility vehicles, and Front wheel-drive cars and crossover vehicles. Daimler Chrysler will be the lead designer of hybrid engines for rear-wheel-drive luxury cars.
The Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon will be the first GM vehicles powered by the newly developed hybrids, Tom Stephens, GM’s group vice president for Power trains, said in a statement yesterday.
Daimler Chrysler will debut with a hybrid-powered Dodgedurango SUV, he said.The Tahoe and Yukon hybrids are scheduled to debut in 2007, when Toyota has said it hopes sales of its hybrid models total several hundred thousand worldwide.
Although hybrids overall make up only a minute percentage of global auto sales, Stephens said in December that some analysts believe hybrids eventually could account for five per cent to 15 per cent of global volume.
Hybrids draw power from two energy sources, typically a gas or diesel engine combined with an electric motor. Demand has grown worldwide because of concerns about the dangers of global warming, decreasing natural fuel supplies and the rising cost of those fuels. |