It's a conceptual stretch to combine Hybrid and Hummer in the name of the same product. Then add 100 MPG and there's our reward for the mental stretch.
But, it's here a Hybrid Hummer with top speeds of 90-mph, a range of 40 miles and....100 MPG. Oh yeah, it still has off-road capabilities and a lithium-ion battery you can recharge in 3 hours. Wired blog.
And who innovated the poster-child of GM's gas-guzzling conspicuous consumption product lines into, possibly, a poster child for what's possible in green auto-design?
A little company. A little company in Utah designed the retrofits that will do all the above. Rasr Technologies in Provo, Utah designed this and more alternative energy products. Hopefully, the term alternative can be dropped in the near future for geothermal, solar, wind, and Hybrid Hummers.
For innovation, three things stand out.
- Rasr's located far from Detroit and the echo-chamber of the Big Three auto makers.
- Rasr's a smaller company.(Almost every company is smaller than GM)
- Rasr's NOT an auto manufacturer.
GM, etal, has the resources, including the people, to do the same. Of course, it wouldn't be a big seller. But the benefits would be:
The PR effect from such an announcement and the conversations that would spring forth.
a beta-level test product that generates real-world test results
show the American public that they're on it; it being innovating new technologies.
Why didn't they?
That answer is why GM needs our tax money to stay afloat, unemployment is gusting over 13% in Michigan, we're losing our leadership in manufacturing, innovation, and our economy is going through a painful upheaval...with the solutions coming from small companies, operating and innovating outside the industry's echo-chamber.
Maybe we should find the answer.
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