General Motors is getting into the extremely fuel-efficient delivery van business with an investment in the startup Bright Automotive, it announced today. It's buying a minority stake in the start-up, which is developing a plug-in hybrid van aimed at fleet customers. The van can travel 38 miles on battery power alone, or it can act as a hybrid, combining gas and electric power to get 36 miles per gallon.

The vehicle seems to be a challenge to Ford's successful Transit Connect, a conventional gas or diesel powered delivery van that will be offered as an electric vehicle later this year. GM says that the Bright van has the advantage of having a longer range than the Ford electric vehicle, which can only go 80 miles on a charge. The Bright van has a range of about 400 miles when using both electric and gas power.

The Bright van also has an unusual hybrid arrangement. The front wheels will be powered by a gas engine (the engine and transmission will come from GM) and the rear wheels will be powered by an electric motor. Bright has developed control systems that coordinated between them.

Porsche has announced that it will make a production version of its 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept car.

The car, which was first shown off this year at the Geneva Auto Show, can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in under 3.2 seconds, and reach a top speed of 198 miles per hour. It pairs an electric motor with an eight-cylinder engine. Drivers will be able to putter along for 16 miles using electricity alone. In ordinary hybrid mode, the car can get 94 miles per imperial gallon (about 78 mpg). For the highest performance, select Sport Hybrid or Race Hybrid mode. The latter includes a "push-to-pass" button that delivers a surge of power from the battery.

With Porsche getting in on the electric-powered action, one wonders how up-starts like Fisker and Tesla will manage.

When a battery company unveils new technology and brags about its long lifetime, the best industry analysts aren't necessarily impressed by charts showing voltage-current curves over hundreds or thousands of discharge cycles. "Show me the warranty," they say. That's a good indication of how long the company really thinks the battery will last.

GM executives have said they expect the battery for its upcoming Volt electric vehicle (actually, a type of plug-in hybrid) will last the life of the car. Now GM has backed up those claims (sort of) by announcing a 8-year, 100,000 mile battery warranty. That's not quite as long as I'd like a car to last--and not as good as a 10-year warranty some had expected--but it's a good amount of time compared to the 3-year warranty offered by some other manufacturers. Nissan, which is coming out with the electric Leaf this year, hasn't yet announced warranty details.

The battery warranty is key, since replacing a full battery pack could cost more than $10,000 by some estimates.