Autoblog

Shortly after reports of leaky batteries coming from Cobasys, which greatly slowed the production of GM's mild hybrid vehicles, such as the Saturn Vue and Aura hybrids and Chevy Malibu hybrid, comes a report from Automotive News which suggests that General Motors may just purchase the troubled battery maker outright. That's one way to manage the problem, wouldn't you say? Though GM would own 100-percent of Cobasys, some sort of partnership is said to be in the works, though that other entity remains unknown. Before this announcement, Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices, co-owners of the battery supplier, had been fighting over ownership of the company.

What effect this news may have on GM's future hybrid plans remains unknown. Currently, Cobasys supplies nickel metal hydride batteries to the General. The upcoming Chevy Volt will use the newer lithium ion batteries. Still, General Motors recently showed off a new version of its mild hybrid technology, and therefore may have extended plans for future batteries from Cobasys.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

As much as General Motors would like to sell more hybrids, we'd imagine it would be pretty tough to do so without having the batteries on hand. It turns out that since December of last year, GM has had to recall some nine-thousand battery packs produced by its supplier, Cobasys, which were due for installation in mild hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Vue and Saturn Aura. The culprit was reportedly an internal leak in the pack which caused the entire unit to be inoperable. This setback hurts even more in the face of record gasoline prices and the resultant record sales of hybrid vehicles.

Chevrolet plans to begin production of the 2009 Malibu hybrid on June 23. Cobasys says that it has resolved the leaky battery problem and that current units are shipping without defects. Unfortunately, some damage has already been done, especially for the Saturn brand, as sales of the hybrid version of the Vue have gone down from 2,683 units by this time last year to just 326 units thus far this year to go along with just 69 retail sales of the Aura hybrid.

[Source: Detroit News]

The evidence: rumor had it at the LA Auto Show that customers would soon have the option of buying a hybrid Toyota Matrix and a hybrid Pontiac Vibe; the 2009 Pontiac Vibe is made at NUMMI, a GM-Toyota joint venture manufacturing plant where the Matrix is also made; Toyota's already got its hybrid synergy drive -- so is GM working on a hybrid with Toyota, or will they use Toyota's hybrid tech to work in the Vibe?

The evidence is circumstantial, certainly. But it's possible. Lutz said at the recent Reuters Auto Summit that, no matter what GM thinks of hybrids, the company made a mistake letting Toyota get so far ahead with hybrids such that now the Japanese brand has become practically synonymous with hybrids and is perceived to be atop a green moral high ground. True, there's the Volt, and GM might not be doing anything with Toyota at all and it could just be a rumor. Or GM could surprise us with something completely new -- it wouldn't be the first time.

[Source: AutoblogGreen]

With all the broken embargoes lately, we were expecting NAIAS to be no more a surprise than what we bought ourselves for Christmas (socks, btw). But look there! What's that behind the sparkling Auto Show tree? A gift from none other than Mark LaNeve, GM Vice President of Sales and Marketing, with a note that says do not open until Sunday.

Hmmm. I wonder what it could be. LaNeve gives us a few hints on the FastLane Blog:

On Sunday, Jan. 7, we've got something up our sleeve that we can't talk about - yet. Suffice it to say that it's a game-changing approach to automotive transportation that will eventually make trips to the gas station a lot less frequent and substantially less painful. This concept will make its world debut this Sunday, and we think you'll find it as exciting and promising as we do.

Ok, so it's a bicycle? No, wait. He says less painful. A Pontiac-branded Segway? No, he says fewer trips to the gas station, not more embarassing trips. Hmmm. So then, what is it? We've already heard about the plug-in Saturn. Fellow Autoblogger Damon Lavrinc is guessing it's a flying car powered by kitten farts. Though we like that idea, um, we're not sure which GM brand would sell it. Saab?

Anyway, we're glad there will be some surprise to the show this year. Check back with us Sunday and we'll have all the details. Hey, Damon, how would you go about collecting enough kitten gas to run a car, anyway? Just curious, of course.

Oh, btw, the photo, it's a Buick Enclave under there. We know as much as you do (possibly less) about what's coming Sunday.