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DETROIT -- Five years ago, Bob Lutz stood in front of a curious crowd at the North American International Auto Show and introduced a radical concept car to the world.
Lutz, then the vice chairman of product development for General Motors, revealed the first electric plug-in concept car from a major automaker: the Chevrolet Volt. He still calls it the "most important car" the company has ever made, despite some of the pitfalls it has experienced.
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Five years later, Lutz stood in front of another curious crowd in Detroit's Cobo Center. This time, as a member of Via Motors' board of directors, he introduced vehicles he thinks make even more sense than the Volt: a line of extended-range electric fleet vehicles that could eventually whet the appetites of Americans hungry for both big cars and fuel efficiency.
"The thing with the Volt is that you have to convince Americans to get into smaller vehicles, which is gradually happening anyway," Lutz said in an interview with the International Business Times at the Detroit Auto Show on Tuesday.
"But if you look at the average American and the mainstream American, their real heart's desire is a big pickup truck or sports utility. One of the reasons I'm excited about this is that this ensures the future of the big sport utilities and pickup trucks."
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Via Motors, based in California, will attempt to take advantage of that eventually -- potentially as early as 2013. But for now, Via, a company that transforms GM trucks, cargo vans and SUVs into hybrid-electric models will market thousands of them to fleet companies both in the United States and abroad, as well as government fleets. But some analysts are skeptical about Via competing in the consumer market.
Via already has one customer -- Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the nation's largest utility company -- which used a pilot program of the truck in 2011 and will expand that deal this year. Lutz said the company has gotten orders from Verizon and Coca-Cola as well.
"These fleets have already realized that they can save millions of dollars by converting to clean electric technology," Lutz said.
At Via's press conference, Lutz also introduced the company's first customer -- PG&E senior vice president Greg Pruett, who has more than 30 years of experience in the utility industry.
PG&E spokesman Dave Meisel told the International Business Times that the company was "very pleased" with the pilot program, because it delivered on its promise of better fuel efficiency and led to more savings.
Via's vehicles come equipped with a 30- to 40-mile electric range and run on advanced, non-flammable, lithium ion batteries. After the electric range is met, the vehicle's electric generator kicks in and can power the car on gas for up to 400 miles. This would help alleviate any potential problems with emergency situations for the fleets. Via said the vehicles average about 100 miles per gallon equivalent in electric mode.
"Via's a small company with a big idea," Via CEO Alan Perriton said, who spent more than 30 years in management roles with GM.
The small company planted its seeds as far back as eight to 10 years ago, when a small group of engineers, researchers and scientists developed motors and generators with more efficiency.
Most of the industry focused on small cars until GM showed interest. That's when Via, which was then intertwined with engineering company Raser Technologies, began the Hummer Project. The idea was to take a gas-guzzler and turn it into a fuel-efficient machine.
