Comments on: It’s Big, it’s Tough, it’s Powerful…it’s a Hybrid?! 2008 Yukon/Tahoe Hybrid Test Drive

By: honda prius

honda prius — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:16:42 +0000

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By: Met Mad Hatter

Met Mad Hatter — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:14:57 +0000

Gasoline is never going to disappear, and that’s fine what these SUV and Cars that are hybrid, flex, electric, and Fuel cell are doing is taking a piece of the market away from the greedy oil industry. If they reduce the oil markets share by 50% in 10 years then they’ve accomplished their intended purposes and we get a cleaner environment to boot. BRAVO

By: queenb@supernerdio.com

queenb@supernerdio.com — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:51:52 +0000

I want a hybrid.

By: texasguy

texasguy — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:12:30 +0000

It’s good to see this. Large vehicle hybrids and large vehicle PHEVs would help out because a lot of people own pickups for their ease of moving things. I know people that have a pickup and only drive them when they need to once a week.

I think the market will sort out who buys pickups/SUVs and who buys smaller cars in the future because even at 20 city 30 highway, the gas bill is pretty high. Also the larger SUVs cost a lot more up front.

IT’s a move in the right direction.

Some people here hate large vehicles but most really just want the volt to be built and have the technology available.

By: Mas

Mas — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:27:43 +0000

I still think People are the problem and not the vehicles. The American People need to learn self-disapline. They need to choose a fuel efficient vehicle that they need, and not a vehicle that they want, just because. I don\’t agree with the mentality that gas should continue to rise in order to control people, because there are some that absolutely need a large vehicle due to the size of their family. Most of these people\’s budgets would seriously become strained if gas was too much to afford. My wife will soon give birth to our third child, add to that a German shepherd dog and all of a sudden, trying to take a trip or go camping and fit all our stuff, us and the dog into her wagon is no way, shape or form possible. However due to the current gas prices, having her drive a large SUV would absolutely bury our budget. Our solution was to buy an older Suburban to keep as a third vehicle, that only gets used for family outings, trips or camping. For everyday use she will continue to drive her fuel efficient wagon and I my fuel efficient sedan.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:36:18 +0000

I’m with Jessica & Matt986. Unless you often need to tow a boat or something, you probably don’t need one of these full-size SUVs. Minivans make more efficient people haulers, but don’t have the macho factor. Using one of these monsters for single-driver, daily commute (as many do) is wasteful in the extreme, even after mileage is improved a bit.

By: Matt986

Matt986 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:05:43 +0000

I think it’s maybe more of a Sword of Damocles in a way. Getting 25-40% better fuel efficiency out of the worst vehicles will be great. It should help reduce prices at the pump..

But on the other hand, it continues to feed the ‘bigger is better’ fad that Americans seem to be stuck on. Using less gas will reduce demand and reduce prices. If prices stay down, people will continue to needlessly buy larger vehicles.

We’ll just have to see what happens…

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:07:24 +0000

Steven, Thank you very much for explaining all of that. It helped a bunch.

By: Steven B

Steven B — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:32:48 +0000

Jessica, you are definitely seeing this in the wrong light. 2-mode hybrid technology has been in development for years before e-flex was introduced as a concept. 2-mode hybrid technology from GM is very significant and so is its use in large vehicles. It was first introduced in city buses and is available as the Whispering Wheel city bus. I’m very optimistic about 2-mode hybrid technology and its use in large SUV’s for one reason: if fuel prices continue to increase, the large SUV market is likely to be reduced to only those who NEED them for personal or business use, and high fuel prices will result in full amortization of the hybrid premium by indvidual buyers. That means that there will be fewer SUV’s on the road and economics will result in all of the new ones being hybrids. But it in no one way inhibits the development of e-flex or affect the Volt’s development timeline.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:16:36 +0000

There’s something about making SUV’s more fuel efficient that bothers and concerns me. I’m currently a driver of a Mini Cooper (desperately waiting for the Volt) and I struggle every day with huge SUVs. Yes 1-5% of the population of SUV drivers actually need the extra space but the rest really do not. I wish the world of cars would move in the direction of being smaller, cause less damage to the roads, and be less obtrusive on the streets instead of just slightly improving (”horrible to bad”). I cheer for increased gas prices in hopes these monstrosities will be slowly phased out. I worry about the focus moving away from the Volt and onto the SUV “efficient cars”. I see this as just another excuse for there to be more of these horrible cars on the road and people actually thinking they’re making a difference. Please please please, if I’m seeing this in the wrong light let me know I just don’t want anything to come in the way between me and my Volt; especially not an SUV.