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Home | Green Cars News | Technology | Freescale Provides â€˜Street Smartsâ€™ for GMâ€™s 2008 Full-Size Hybrid SUVs

Freescale Provides â€˜Street Smartsâ€™ for GMâ€™s 2008 Full-Size Hybrid SUVs

26 February, 2008 12:00:00

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32-bit microcontrollers, developed and manufactured from Freescale Semiconductor will be used in GM's new full-size SUV hybrids: the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and GMC Yukon Hybrid.

General Motors claims that its dual-mode hybrids one-up Toyota's single-mode hybrid by using multiple microcontrollers from Freescale Semiconductor Inc. to achieve superior gas savings. First generation single-mode hybrids only yield mileage savings when used in stop-and-go city traffic, but GM's new dual-mode hybrids employ a second electric motor and complex control of transmission gearing to achieve gas savings during highway driving, too.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc. expects to grow auto-related semiconductor unit sales at double-digit rates, building on success in supplying chips for just-launched hybrid vehicles from General Motors Corp, a senior executive said.

Sales of hybrid vehicles surged 40 percent last year in the US market but still represent less than 3 per cent of overall new vehicle sales.

GM's two-mode hybrid transmission is an innovative, highly efficient powertrain design that boosts the fuel economy of the SUVs and large luxury vehicles by up to 50 percent in city driving compared to traditional gasoline engines. Based on the GM-Allison hybrid system for city buses, this patented hybrid technology is equally optimized for city and highway driving, unlike current production hybrid systems, which generally are optimized for city driving. In addition, the 2008 Tahoe/Yukon models are the first hybrids with a 6,000-pound towing capacity, making these two-mode hybrid transmissions similar in power to traditional SUVs.

The eight-passenger Tahoe and Yukon hybrids represent the first full-size hybrid SUVs on the market and the first to use a hybrid system GM developed with BMW AG, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, and Chrysler LLC.

For GM, the No. 1 US automaker, the new hybrids represent a chance to show it is pushing forward with fuel-saving technology on some of the biggest vehicles in its line-up in a bid to address criticism that it has relied too heavily on gas-guzzlers like the Hummer.

The Tahoe Hybrid gets 21 miles per gallon in the city, a roughly 30 per cent improvement that GM has said puts the big vehicle on par with a Toyota Camry sedan.

Next year GM also plans to introduce a hybrid version of its Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV and its Silverado and Sierra pick-up truck using the same hybrid system used in the Tahoe and Yukon.

The GM "two-mode" hybrid system is designed to allow the SUVs to run on electric power at low-speed city driving and then draw on the electric motor for a power boost at highway speeds when needed.

The Freescale controller manages the way the vehicles draw power and switch between the on-board electric motor and a traditional internal combustion engine.

A GM supplier for almost three decades, Freescale is targeting a role for itself working with automakers on a range of next-generation electric vehicles including rechargeable hybrids such as the Chevy Volt, Richard said.

Auto-related chip sales represented almost a third of its $4.1 billion in sales for the nine months ended in September 2007, according to a filing with US securities regulators.