Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid leads Drive to Green plan

Shanghai GM, the Chinese arm of the (still) biggest automaker in the world, has announced its “Drive to Green” strategy in order to have a cleaner way of producing cars, as well as cars that pollute even less than the current ones. To prove wrong the ones that may think this is just a statement and nothing else, the company has also presented the first product from the strategy, the Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid.

Capable of running 12 km/l of petrol, instead of the 10.2 km/l the regular version is able to achieve, the LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid is, according to Shanghai GM, the “first mainstream hybrid model in China’s upper-medium vehicle segment with volume production”. It offers almost an increase of 20% in fuel economy, but still nothing to be impressed with, especially considering the additional cost a hybrid vehicle offers. The real deal, the two-mode hybrid system, will be reserved to another vehicle, yet to be defined. Anyway, the fuel economy intended for this new product will be significantly better: 50%.

Besides the new cars, Shanghai GM has also announced three new engines for 2008. Although one of them is a total mistery (no information about it), the other two are the 1.2-liter S-TEC and the HFV6 3.6-liter SIDI dual mode direct injection engine, possibly the same one used on the Saturn Vue Green Line. The S-TEC generates 85.2 bhp and spend one liter of fuel every 16.7 km. As for the V6, its direct injection system enhances power and torque respectively in 15% and 8%. Fuel consumption is improved by 3%.