A new technology may allow drivers to recharge their car in the same way they recharge a cell phone or iPod.

On Nov. 29, General Motors announced plans to develop a plug-in hybrid vehicle. The vehicle will be a Saturn Vue Green Line, an SUV that GM claims will double the fuel efficiency of any current SUV on the market.

The company did not offer a timetable for the new vehicle.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles differ from non-plug-in hybrids in that plug-ins have extended electric-only propulsion, according to a GM press release. The vehicle also has additional battery capacity and the ability to be recharged from an external electrical outlet, the release said.

The Saturn Vue Green plug-in is expected to be able to offer electric-only propulsion for more than 10 miles, according to the release. At higher speeds or when the conditions require it, a combination of both engine and electric power or engine power only will propel it.

Dennis Kroeger, assistant scientist for the Center for Transportation Research and Education, said they are about three or four years away from having this technology be affordable.

“We just need to keep developing them and keep making them last longer,” he said.

One of the biggest advantages to having a plug-in hybrid car – from an environmental standpoint – is the recharge factor, said Floyd Barwig, director of the Iowa Energy Center.

“An electrical power plant is a central source, so it’s a lot easier to put a pollution control device on a central source that recharges 1,000 cars than it is to put a pollution control device on 1,000 separate cars,” he said.

This step taken by GM is part of a larger trend, Barwig said.

“I believe it’s part of the general thrust towards more efficient transportation,” he said.

The automobile industry is moving in the right direction in that they’re developing these types of vehicles, Kroeger said.

“Increasing fuel mileage and decreasing emissions are both goals that we need to work toward and further those developments of those technologies,” he said.

General Motors is much cleaner than it used to be, said Bob Parks, president of George White Chevrolet-Pontiac, U.S. Highway 30 South and U.S. Highway 69. He said Americans will have to rely on another energy source in the future and this is a good effort by GM to help with the transition.

The new plug-in hybrid vehicle will be successful, Parks said. GM has been working on this for a long time and would not have made the announcement unless they believed it would be a success, he said.

“They’ve obviously done their research,” Parks said.