GM commends the Congress and President for passage of an energy bill. The new fuel economy standards within the bill set a tough, national target that GM will strive to meet. We will focus our engineering and technical resources to attain these standards and we remain hard at work applying the innovation and developing the advanced technologies that will power tomorrow's cars and trucks. Addressing the nation's energy security challenges, however, will require all of us working together and we hope to see continued progress on infrastructure and market-driven mechanisms that can augment the auto industry's efforts.

Background

* GM has an established track record of innovation and a commitment to improving the fuel economy in its cars and trucks. Years of engineering and development, and billions of research dollars have produced the GM vehicles that you see on the road today. Currently, GM offers more vehicles that achieve 30 mpg on the highway, more flex fuel vehicles that can run on E85, and groundbreaking technology such as GM's two-mode hybrid system found in our full-size light trucks. Far from standing still, GM has more cars and trucks on the way that will offer the broadest line-up of "green" technology. 

Here's how GM plans to lead the industry: 

* GM will continue to improve the internal combustion engine, and to dramatically intensify its efforts to displace petroleum fuels with bio-fuel alternatives such as ethanol--the best, near-term solution to actually reduce gasoline consumption. GM alone has produced over 2.5 million E-85 capable vehicles to date--more than any other automaker.

* GM is also releasing an average of one new hybrid model every three months for the next two years that includes the Saturn Vue and Aura Green Line, and Chevrolet Malibu. This year, we've introduced the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon two-mode hybrid (the only hybrid system developed and built in the U.S. at our Baltimore, MD transmission plant) that get a 50% improvement in city mileage over gas versions. This level of performance earned the Chevy Tahoe two-mode hybrid the "Green Car of the Year" award at the LA Auto Show. For next year, we'll be launching three additional two-mode hybrid versions of the Cadillac Escalade, and Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pick-ups.

* In addition, GM is significantly expanding its development work on electrically driven vehicles like the Chevy Volt and Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle. This year GM launched Project Driveway, the world's largest test fleet of fuel cell vehicles, that will have 100 Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles distributed in California, New York and Washington, DC. Also this year, two advanced battery development contracts were announced and in August, GM and A123Systems announced an additional agreement to speed development of batteries specifically designed for the Chevy Volt's extended range electrical powertrain.

New standards and the technology to meet them?  The energy bill ..
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