General Motors seems to be working hard to earn its federal bailout money in the eyes of the public, hot on the heels of the recent Chevy Volt announcements comes the above pictured concept vehicle – the MPV5 Volt Hybrid SUV. How’s that for a mouthful of a name. The car uses the same basic platform as the Volt, officially called the “Voltec” platform and is widely believed to be a near final concept, meaning that what we see here is very similar to what we will see on the road when it is released.

GM (NYSE: GM) will unveil the car in China tomorrow at the Beijing Motor Show, an interesting move by any measure but a potentially clever one as all of the North American and European car shows have become a procession of electric and hybrid concept vehicles, the decision to launch in a Chinese car show is potentially a strategic move to ensure that the car is the only hybrid being talked about in the news cycle for the next few days. Or it may just have been a convenient launch window. But I like to think that they’re clever like that.

The Hybrid SUV shares the same running gear as the Volt so we anticipate that it will have the same basic performance specifications with a little less milage on a charge (32 miles vs 40 miles) due to the added weight and aerodynamic drag of the higher roof/larger body. The car has twin solar panels on the roof, which will provide an teeny tiny amount of power but will (far more importantly) be awesome for showing off to the other soccer mums at half time.

Pricing is not announced but we’ll keep you updated as we hear news.

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Via CNN