Saturn Hybrids Cancelled

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Saturn Hybrids Cancelled

Jennifer Knightstep

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1,603 views Apr 27, 2009

2009 Saturn Vue Hybrid

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Today General Motors announced they will cease production of the Saturn line-up at the end of the 2009 model year. This is a sad day for die-hard fans, who embraced Saturn's "different kind of car company" credo. But this is also a major set-back to GM's plan for a complete line-up of battery electric and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles. Saturn accounted for a third of GM's hybrid sales in 2008, and with today's announcement that the Saturn brand will be discontinued also came word that none of the Saturn vehicles will be re-badged as anything else. According to GM, the re-badging process is just too cost-prohibitive.

Which means, in essence, the VUE plug-in will not become an Equinox plug-in, and the AURA hybrid won't become an Impala or Malibu. These entries in GM's line-up will be phased out with the rest of the Saturns, and hopefully the chunk of sales they garnered will be transferred to another brand, perhaps the Chevy Volt, another vehicle featured in today's Viability Plan.

Source: General Motors

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Comments (4)

phoenix00 Posted: 4/27/2009 3:58pm PDT

"cost 'prohibitive'?"

Here I thought GM did "badge engineering" in the past because it SAVED money!!

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John Voelcker Posted: 4/27/2009 5:08pm PDT

"D'oh! The Aura Hybrid won't become a Malibu ..."

... there's already a Malibu Hybrid using exactly the same Belt-Alternator-Starter mild-hybrid system. It's not doing very well, just as the Aura Hybrid didn't, now that the Malibu offers a 4-cylinder motor with the 6-speed automatic, which gets mileage almost as good.
Perhaps the second generation BAS system with Li-ion cells will provide a more significant mileage increase.

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Diyan Posted: 4/28/2009 9:20am PDT