General Motors has developed a lower-cost antilock brake system that would allow it to offer the safety feature in its smaller cars and not just its full-size and luxury models.
The new ABS system, called ABS-VI, would cost GM from $250 to $350 to build versus about $600 to $800 for the ABS system now offered in large cars. It is not known what the ABS-VI would sell for at retail as an option. The current ABS system in larger GM cars typically runs from $900 to $1,200 when offered as an option on cars that don`t carry it as standard equipment.
Automotive News, a trade publication, said the first application of the new ABS system would be in 1991 models of the Saturn sedan and coupe this fall as well as in the Pontiac, Olds and Buick line of compact N-body cars, the Pontiac Grand Am, Olds Calais and Buick Skylark.
ABS-VI differs from the current ABS system in that three electric motors control brake pressure and activate brake pulsating that prevents wheel lockup in a panic stop regardless of road conditions. In existing systems, such pulsating is controlled by fast-acting solenoid valves.
GM long has said it wants to offer ABS in all its cars by the mid-`90s but that the price of the system has been prohibitive for small economy cars and the price-sensitive consumers who buy them. Sales of the systems as options have been poor, Automtove News reported.
By adopting the lower-cost system, GM is aiming to make ABS available in all its cars, from the smallest economy model to the most expensive luxury machine, by the 1994 model year.
Other ABS suppliers have developed less expensive systems, but they dodn`t use electric motors to modulate brake pressure, Automotive News said.
First-year output of the ABS-VI system is to be around 50,000 to 100,000 units. By 1994, GM expects to build more than 3 million annually. GM may seek to sell the systems to overseas manufacturers as well.
