PepsiCo, the nation's second biggest soft drink company, is introducing a group of new products, including G2, a Gatorade with half the calories of the normal variety Gatorade. The company hopes that G2 will attract those customers who have refrained from the sports drink in search of lower calorie drinks.

The new G2 will have 25 calories per 8-ounce serving, half the amount of regular Gatorade. The original lemon-lime Gatorade has 50 calories per eight-ounce serving.

It will be available in three flavors: fruit punch, grape and orange initially. It will also have the same amount of electrolytes and minerals as Gatorade, and fewer carbohydrates.

Spokesman Dave DeCecco said in a statement that the new beverages will be on store shelves late this year or early in 2008.

The Purchase, New York-based company, also plans to add a caffeinated version of Propel water to increase its dripping sales in North America. Also, Vitamin-spiked drinks SoBe Life Water will be reformulated with sucrose, antioxidants, vitamins and fewer calories, the company announced Friday.

PepsiCo will also use a new sweetener blend with fewer calories for its Aquafina Alive water.

>Gatorade President Todd Magazine told Bloomberg in an interview that PepsiCo has considered making a low-calorie electrolyte drink aimed at athletes for about seven years. The new formula for G2 was decided about a year and a half ago.