"I'm announcing today that GM is significantly expanding and accelerating our commitment to the development of electrically driven vehicles, beyond what we have already committed to with our fuel cell and hybrid programs," said Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive.

"GM is committed to the development of electrically driven vehicles that will help improve energy diversity, and minimize the automobile's impact on the environment."

GM officials had previously maintained that hybrid cars, which use a combination of gasoline and electric motors, were likely to be a passing phenomenon as automakers develop new technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells.

The dream of an electric car, which has been around since the time of Thomas Edison, has failed to break into the mainstream because of limited battery life that makes such vehicles impractical for most purposes.

GM offered no timetable for the introduction of such a car but said it was now beginning work on a "plug-in" hybrid car that would boost battery power by recharging through standard electrical outlets.

"Given what we know today, it's pretty clear that it will take several years to bring to market a plug-in hybrid that will meet the expectations and real world performance standards that our customers expect," Wagoner said.

The announcement comes as GM and the other major US automakers are facing one of their worst slumps in decades, losing ground to Asian automakers with lower operating costs while customers abandon profitable but fuel-guzzling sport-utility vehicles.

GM said it was not abandoning its plans for a fuel-cell vehicle, but would at the same time increase its commitment to hybrids.

GM said it was introducing a two-mode hybrid for the Saturn Vue, a compact SUV, saying it would improve fuel economy by 45 percent over a traditional gasoline engine, and would use the system for other vehicles in the future.

By using two electric modes and four fixed gear ratios, the two-mode hybrid system's electric motors are smaller, compared with traditional "one-mode" hybrid systems, and impose no significant limitation on the size of the engine, GM said.

"We are delivering on our promise to continue our steady rollout of additional hybrid applications, each offering different levels of affordability, fuel savings and performance," said Tom Stephens, GM powertrain group vice president.

GM said that in 2007, hybrid versions of the Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu sedans would be made available, and the two-mode hybrid system would debut in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon full-size SUVs.

The two-mode hybrid system will expand to other vehicles in 2008.

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