( dpa )- The biggest US car manufacturer General Motors (GM) is to launch 16 new hybrid vehicles onto the market over the next four years, the Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said at the Detroit Motor Show Sunday.
GM will also join a US company that wants to use ethanol as a fuel or gain it from the remains of plants and even from tyres .
However, this technology is still in the early stages and such fuel could be expected on the market in 2012 at the earliest, the Wall Street Journal reported. So far, ethanol has been gained from sugar cane and corn.
Wagoner also said the available of ethanol should be increased swiftly. Only then could the huge consumption of crude oil be reduced.
"Ethanol has huge potential to reduce the consumption of crude oil," he said and stressed that GM would continue to develop electronic drive.
Wagoner did not say how high GM's share in the Illinois-based ethanol company Coskata was.