TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A General Motors transmission plant could be producing parts for gas-electric hybrid vehicles by 2011, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The plans are included in a new four-year contract the company ratified with the United Auto Workers last month, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported. The contract calls for the plant to begin making the ''Gen II Hybrid'' rear-wheel-drive transmission by 2011 or 2012, the newspaper said.
GM will begin selling next month the first generation of the system — several models of full-sized sport utility vehicles for the 2008 model year.
GM spokesman Tom Read would not comment on details of the company's product plans but confirmed that GM has only one rear-wheel-drive hybrid system in the works that could reach a second generation by 2011. A message seeking comment was left at UAW Local 14 in Toledo on Saturday.
GM plans to begin making the first of its truck hybrids in the Chevrolet Tahoe next month. GM has said the vehicle will get about 22 miles per gallon, a 30 percent increase over the gas-only version. The same system will show up on the Cadillac Escalade and several other GM SUVs.
The company plans to launch a similar system for cars next year.
GM calls the system a ''two-mode'' hybrid because the vehicles operate on electricity alone at low speeds, and electricity boosts power output at high speeds.
On the big vehicles, GM has coupled the hybrid with advanced engine advancement such as displacement on demand, a system that shuts down four cylinders of a V-8 engine at highway speeds when it doesn't need as much power.
Adding such a system to Toledo would be the latest commitment GM has made to the plant, which employs 3,400. In two separate announcements earlier this year, GM outlined plans to spend $832 million to upgrade portions of the plant.
The upgrades will allow GM to produce six-speed truck transmissions next year and six-speed car transmissions by 2010.
Moving to six-speed systems for the current four-speed models could boost miles per gallon by about 10 percent, GM officials said in announcing the plans.
In addition to the hybrid systems, the UAW contract says Toledo should get another new product in 2012 — a racing-inspired transmission for the next version of the Corvette.