2012 Buick LaCrosse eAssist, which uses mild hybrid technology to improve fuel efficiency by 25 to 30 percent.
General Motors will take great pains to avoid using the H word when it unveils the gas-electric Buick LaCrosse this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Instead, it will call the system “eAssist,” to avoid any association with competing hybrids, and to dodge past complaints that its mild form of hybrid technology doesn’t deserve the hybrid name.
Whatever you call it, the new system is a definite step up for G.M. hybrids. The Buick LaCrosse Hybrid uses a 4-cylinder direct injection engine and a lithium-ion battery pack to provide a 25 to 30 percent improvement over the current 4-cylinder LaCrosse. The new model is expected to get 25 miles per gallon in the city and 37 on the highway—beating the outgoing model’s 19/30 mpg rating.
In another sign that hybrid technology will become increasingly commonplace in the auto market—as tougher efficiency and emissions standards take hold—the new 4-cylinder LaCrosse will only be offered as a hybrid. 'Maybe this is the base powertrain of the future,' Steve Poulos, the chief engineer for eAssist, told Detroit Free Press. The base price for the LaCrosse eAssist will be $30,000, the same price as the 6-cylinder LaCrosse, the only other drivetrain option.
The use of the term “eAssist” is not the first time that G.M. is playing around with the technical name of its hybrids to supposedly improve market perception. The company refers to the Chevy Volt as an “extended-range electric vehicle,” even though the Society of Automotive Engineers (and nearly every official group) considers it a plug-in hybrid.
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