Struggling GM turns to Segway for green salvation

After years of shunning fuel efficiency and green technologies, General Motors appears to be trying to stave off potential bankruptcy by throwing itself into the environmentally friendly motoring arena with a prototype tie-up with wacky electric vehicle maker Segway.

In a statement released this week ahead of the New York motorshow, GM and Segway said its new Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) vehicle would provide a zero-emission and cost-effective means of urban transport.

"Project PUMA represents a unique solution to moving about and interacting in cities, where more than half of the world's people live," said Larry Burns, GM vice president of strategic planning, research and development.

Alongside the environmental benefits, the companies are also promoting the vehicle's "social networking" capabilities, predicting that the PUMA could eventually be equipped with sophisticated vehicle-to-vehicle communications – building on existing technology from GM such as its OnStar remote security and breakdown service – which would allow drivers to communicate, network and hopefully avoid collisions.

"Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them," Burns said. "Now, connect those vehicles in an internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks."

GM claims that so-called "connected vehicle technologies" could ultimately lead to cars that never crash and even drive themselves. "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," Burns added. "And imagine doing this for one fourth to one third the cost of what you pay to own and operate today's automobile. This is what Project PUMA is capable of delivering. "

However, despite GM's bold assertions for the future, given the dire financial state of the company, it is not clear how well equipped the firm is to deliver on its electric car plans. According to Reuters reports, the company is already preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing.

Segway already builds a successful two-wheel vehicle which use gyroscopics to prevent the rider falling off, and enjoyed global publicity back in 2003 when former US president George W Bush famously managed to fall off one of its scooters.

Commenting on project PUMA, Jim Norrod, chief executive of Segway, said the new vehicle would build on the success of the company's scooters. "You get an emotional connection when using Segway products," he said. "The Project PUMA prototype vehicle embodies this through the combination of advanced technologies that Segway and GM bring to the table to complete the connection between the rider, environment, and others."

The PUMA is not GM's only foray into electric vehicles. Earlier this year, the head of GM's flagship Chevrolet brand announced that the car maker is planning to invest up to $30m (£21.6m) in a facility to construct power packs for its new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid range.

The facility, which according to GM will be the first Lithium-ion battery pack manufacturing plant to be owned by an automaker in the US, will assemble battery cells manufactured by South Korea's LG Chem.

But GM's dreams of a utopian future of connected electric vehicles may jar with some historians given allegations that the car maker, along with other automotive players, conspired to bring down the electric street car system in the US during the late 1930s to help benefit car production.