General Motors plans new two-seat electric vehicle

Puma is the name of the new vehicle project that the struggling automaker is working on with scooter specialist Segway. The two-seater electric vehicle is designed to be more an environmentally friendly way of zipping around cities.US automaker General Motors and scooter maker Segway announced Tuesday they were working together to build a new two-wheeled, two-seat electric vehicle for city use.Dubbed Puma (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), the vehicle would be powered by lithium-ion batteries and feature a wireless communications network allowing users to avoid traffic and prevent crashes, the companies said in a statement.The prototype is designed to reach speeds of up to 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour and travel up to 35 miles between recharges. But the groups did not say when the two-wheeler would hit the roads or how much it would cost."Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them," said GM vice president of research and development Larry Burns."Now, connect those vehicles in an Internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks."