GM forms team for hybrids, electric vehicles

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The world's largest automaker, which plans to produce the Chevrolet Volt plug-in by the end of 2010, said the global team will be based in Warren and Milford, Michigan, Mainz-Kastel, Germany and Shanghai, China.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> said on Thursday it formed a new organization to speed up the implementation of advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric vehicles.

The world's largest automaker, which plans to produce the Chevrolet Volt plug-in by the end of 2010, said the global team will be based in Warren and Milford, Michigan, Mainz-Kastel, Germany and Shanghai, China.

The team will be working on the Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid, which GM has said could precede the Volt as the first commercially-available electric vehicle.

Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, plug-ins are designed for short trips powered entirely by an electric motor and a battery charged through a socket at home.

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(Reporting by Jui Chakravorty Das; Editing by Derek Caney)