Vue 2 mode hybrid launch date scrubbed?

Dependent on the bailout?

Back in April I found myself sitting next to Bob Kruse, Executive Director of Vehicle Integration and GM Performance Division, at a dinner hosted by GM for a media update on the Chevy Volt.

Turns out Kruse had been driving the soon-to-be-released Saturn Vue dual mode hybrid, a vehicle Kruse was pretty excited about. In fact, he told me that although the numbers had not yet been finalized, the Vue dual mode was testing 70 percent more fuel efficient than a conventional Vue in city driving.

More important, by the end of 2008, GM would begin selling the Vue dual mode, Kruse confirmed.

Today, GM notified me that the Vue dual mode hybrid is set to go on sale some time in Q1 2009. This Vue of GM's future, it seems, is now completely dependent upon an automaker bailout.