If you are looking forward to the coming of the Crossover Buick, we are sad to inform you that it has been officially cancelled by General Motors. The supposed vehicle garnered a lot of negative feedback from the media, employees and dealerships, considering the direction that the company is planning to take. And in the end, GM just shelved the program and decided to transfer the Vue’s plug-in hybrid powertrain to another vehicle by 2011.

There is no word on which vehicle the plug-in hybrid powertrain would be transferred to. But in all, it seems that this development coincides with the new outlook that GM is envisioning. And from the look of it, it is back to the drawing boards for GM, a move that may be one of the wisest they may be making to date.

(Source) Autoblog

Tags: Buick, Crossover, drawing boards, General Motors, GM, hybrid powertrain, negative feedback, new outlook

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In an effort to broaden and improve the continuous efforts in the development of electric and hybrid cars, FEV, Inc. has announced that it has commissioned the area’s first full Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Development Center (HEVDC) at its Auburn Hills campus.

The HEVDC was developed over a period of two years, with the final phase, the installation of a dedicated chassis dynamometer for hybrid and electric vehicle testing, which will be completed in March. FEV invested approximately $8 million into development of the HEVDC, which became fully operational with the installation of the vehicle chassis dyno.

The HEVDC, which is the North American part of FEV’s worldwide competence in hybrid & EV, is an evolution of FEV’s extensive development efforts in the areas of hybrid and electric vehicles, and is fully capable of facilitating the development of all propulsion technologies related to tomorrow’s vehicles. Enabling technology includes:

• Hybrid powertrain test cells
• Hybrid/EV transmission test rigs
• Electric Motor test rigs
• Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Chassis Dyno
• Electric Charging Station for PHEVs and EVs

FEV anticipates an increase in staffing to accommodate the activity level of the HEVDC, including the addition of highly specialized engineering and technical personnel.

(Source) Press

Tags: auburn hills campus, charging station, chassis dynamometer, chassis dyno, electric vehicles, hybrid development, hybrid electric vehicle, hybrid powertrain, motor test, technical personnel, test rigs, transmission test

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