April 8, 2009 - PUMA for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility - GM and Segway Project, New York NY

From the Escalade to the PUMA, an industry slims down

Can the company that brought the world the Hummer save itself with a 136-kilogram knockoff of a golf cart?

Is it a rickshaw or a car? GM sees PUMA in the future

G.M.’s P.U.M.A. prototype in Manhattan.

Can the company that brought the world the Hummer save itself with a 136-kilogram knockoff of a golf cart?

Struggling to reinvent itself, General Motors Corp. said yesterday that it has teamed up with the iconic scooter company Segway Inc. to develop a battery-powered, two-seat, two-wheeled vehicle that would cost between one-quarter and one-third the price of today's automobiles.

The self-balancing device – called PUMA for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility – would be able to avert collisions by using digital communication and other technologies and run for as little as 60 cents (U.S.) a charge, the companies said.

News of the project confounded the industry as GM and Segway demonstrated a prototype in New York City yesterday. The vehicle, which resembles an extra-wide wheelchair with a plastic canopy, is capable of a top speed of 56 kilometres an hour and can cover 56 kilometres on one charge of its lithium-ion batteries, they said.

“It's a very interesting green play, but no one is expecting this to re-float General Motors,” said Bill Pochiluk, president of AutomotiveCompass LLC, a consultancy in West Chester, Pa. “I just see it as a start of a new relationship. It's not enough to change anybody's mind about General Motors or Segway at this point.”

Segway, of Bedford, N.H., introduced its Personal Transporter scooter in 2001 to great hype, but has never lived up to early billing that it could transform the way people move around cities. The product has won the hearts of numerous celebrities, including Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.

But it has also suffered from recalls, some bad press and bans in some public places, including Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks.

GM, which sold more than eight million gasoline-powered vehicles worldwide last year, has been touting its green technology in recent months, at the same time as it has appealed for government financial assistance.

Its venture with Segway follows promises of introducing a hybrid-electric car next year called the Chevrolet Volt and an effort to sell its Hummer unit.

Larry Burns, vice-president of research and development and strategic planning at GM, described the prototype PUMA yesterday in utopian terms.

“Imagine moving about cities in a vehicle fashioned to your taste, that's fun to drive and ride in, that safely takes you where you want to go, and ‘connects' you to friends and family, while using clean, renewable energy, producing zero vehicle tailpipe emissions, and without the stress of traffic jams,” he said.

GM is aiming to launch the vehicle in 2012 and, Mr. Burns said, could begin with an area such as a university campus.

Jim Norrod, chief executive officer of Segway, said the two companies had demonstrated “a dramatically different approach to urban mobility.”

The firms did not provide any details about production plans.

Original Story - Globe and Mail

Additional Story

Having conquered the world of passenger vehicles, General Motors Corp. showed off its vision of future transportation today that’s either exciting or frightening, depending on whether one cares about driving.

GM and Segway unveiled the Project PUMA, a two-seat rickshaw minus a rick that uses the Segway’s electric systems to glide around on two wheels. Capable of carrying 700 pounds in a frame about half the size of a Smart car, the PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) can spin on a pin and “bows” to let passengers in and out.

The PUMA — a name that suggests someone at GM or Segway may be a hard-core Hillary Clinton supporter — can hit 35 miles an hour and travel 35 miles on a charge. The mockup vehicle had no creature comforts beyond seat belts, but GM vice president of research Larry Burns says the PUMA could “fundamentally change how we move around cities.”

GM envisions a real PUMA would be stuffed with electronics for constant communications among other vehicles that would handle much of the driving. GM showed off a video imagining how fully formed PUMAs would work – zipping around streets in perfect single file, using telemetry to avoid crashes, and bodywork that folds open like a mechanical egg, like a mashup of “Transformers” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

“Think Facebook on wheels,” says Burns, the first of several obligatory and stretched Internet references set for this year's New York International Auto Show.

Burns and Segway chief Jim Norrod gave an estimated price tag for a PUMA as one-sixth of what a car costs today. They declined to do the math, but we won’t: call it $4,000. Burns said the PUMA could also turn into a “fashion statement," with custom designs.

“They’re almost lifelike," he said. "The body gestures as it accelerates, and it bows down as it stops…It’s very polite."

Given GM’s current 53-day deadline by the Obama administration to cough up fresh cost cuts or head to bankruptcy court, the 18 months spent on developing the PUMA may seem like a waste.

But Burns said PUMA-like vehicles would make sense in a world of exploding growth in cities and spiking oil prices. By GM’s estimates, 80% of the world’s wealth will be concentrated in cities by 2030, especially in Asia.

“If you want to be in the business of selling a mobility machine, you better have one that works in cities,” Burns said.

Lest consumers worry about PUMAs turning on taxpayer dimes, GM did check in with its minders at the Obama administration’s auto task force before giving PUMA rides today.

And should critics think GM has gone too far afield, the company can point to the threat of foreign automakers cornering the market for rolling electric chairs. Last year, Toyota Motor Co. unveiled the Winglet, a Segway competitor, and two years ago showed off the i-Real concept, literally a hopped-up wheelchair.

“We have to cut deeper, we have to cut faster, we have to reinvent the company, we have to reinvent the automobile,” Burns said. “The good news is the government is going to help us make this journey.”

Original Story - Detroit Free Press