Fate of Saturn Hybrids Depends on Final Terms of Penske Deal

Fate of Saturn Hybrids Depends on Final Terms of Penske Deal

By John O'Dell June 5, 2009

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

One of the items still to be worked out as Penske Automotive Group and General Motors Corp. finalize the agreement that will make Saturn a Penske property is whether the two Saturn hybrids will stay or go.

GM owns the technology and while it has agreed to continue building the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook models for Penske for the next two years, there's be no deal yet for continued production of the Aura hybrid, Vue Greenline hybrid or the long-promised Vue plug-in hybrid, GM spokesman Steve Janisse told Green Car Advisor.

"'TBD,'" he said. "What happens is 'to be determined' in negotiations over the next 60 days."

Dropping the the Saturn hybrids wouldn't be a big blow sales-wise - they haven't been very popular, accounting for only 1,402 sales so far this year. That's 134 Aura sedans and 1,268 Vues and is just 4 percent of total Saturn sales through May

But the hybrids' fuel economy does help boost Saturn's overall CAFE average.

That could be a help to Penske as federal fuel economy standards climb nearly 30 percent from now through 2015 , but only if GM agrees to sell the vehicles at a cut-rate price.

We'll keep you posted.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.