Via Motors, which has been sup­ported by GM’s ex-chair and Chevro­let Volt advo­cate Bob Lutz, will be unveil­ing three new full-size elec­tric vehi­cles at the Detroit Auto Show this month. Beyond its plug-in hybrid pickup, the range of extended range vehi­cles will include a high per­for­mance, four-wheel drive truck with up to 800 horse­power. Other offer­ings include a lux­ury 4WD SUV, and an extended range 12-passenger van.

With Via’s exist­ing mod­els based on Chevro­let vehi­cles, some ana­lysts think that it’s likely the new mod­els will fol­low suit, based on mod­els like the Sub­ur­ban and Express. Via’s strate­gic approach is to elec­trify the more gas-guzzling vehi­cles on the mar­ket, bring­ing about the great­est improve­ments over the stan­dard mod­els. Nat­u­rally, emis­sions are reduced, as well as fuel cost. This should be very attrac­tive to fleet man­agers, as long as the cost per mile expense is com­pet­i­tive with other vehi­cles on the mar­ket. Cer­tain con­sumers might take to it as well, espe­cially those who’ve grown up dri­ving only light truck mod­els, and look for­ward to sav­ing big on fuel expenses.