Not to pick on a company when it's down, but GM is running on fumes as far as its hybrid vehicle program. Maybe that's one reason the company has decided to produce yet another Hummer model, a new truck version expected in showrooms in 2009.

Hmmm. Making a gas guzzler when some oil industry analysts are predicting the fossil fuel will eventually hit $100 a barrel. Seems like we went down this highway, or at least the frontage road, not too long ago.

OK, that triple-digit prediction is a ways off, but in the nearer term, you can be sure that with the midterm election over and the holiday driving season nigh, pump prices will start rising again.

This year's up-then-down-then-up again gasoline prices have prompted some drivers to a least consider switching to more fuel-efficient autos. An added incentive for such purchases is the hybrid tax credit.

But apparently, neither factor has helped GM very much.

By the numbers: The company has nine makes/models that meet the environmental standards that allow buyers to claim a tax credit on their 2006 returns. The actual amount of a particular auto's credit depends in part on just how many of the fuel-efficient autos each manufacturer sells (details in this story).

Success for the dealers means worse tax consequences for buyers. After a car maker sells a total of 60,000 hybrids, the tax credit amounts on all its eligible vehicles is cut in half. It keeps phasing down until it ultimately disappears.

No such worry of that for GM. The IRS has released the official word on the company's sales during the the third quarter of the year: a negligible 812. That brings the Detroit automaker's cumulative number of qualified hybrid vehicles sold to 2,200.

At this rate, it's a pretty safe bet that the company will never reach the 60,000 sales mark before the credit expires at the end of 2010.

By comparison, Toyota sold more than 57,000 hybrids between July 1 and Sept. 30, bringing the Japanese automaker's cumulative qualified hybrid sales to 144,216. Those numbers meant the tax credit for Toyota hybrids was cut in half on Oct. 1.