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“For those who want to use as little gas as possible but still need the capabilities of a full-size pickup truck, the hybrid twins from General Motors will fit the bill nicely. So let the love affair continue.”
35 Comments on “Autobloggreen Loves them Some $45k Chevy Silverado Hybrid...”
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One of the questions commonly posed in the “Tahoe and Yukon Hybrid” section of greenhybrid.com is, “How do I get that ‘hybrid’ sticker off the side of my Yukahoe?”
And… $45K? They aren’t serious about selling this one, either.
GM! Listen up! Build a hybrid work truck! Work trucks are the trucks people need!
That’s a ludicrously high price tag…
On the topic of hybrid trucks, though, it seems if anything that they’d make the most sense to electrify. If you look at a Prius, it gets 45 MPG versus, let’s say, a Corolla which gets 35 or so MPG.
The same comparison in pickup trucks results in a bigger overall gain in efficiency (or put in another way, a larger decrease in fuel consumption), especially if you consider:
1. The different between 35 and 45 MPG is smaller than, say, 15 and 21 MPG. If you consider amortization over every mile, the truck difference would be greater.
2. MPG, as has been mentioned several times, is a poor metric — it’s nonlinear and doesn’t give an accurate measurement of the fuel consumed. GPM units would show that if we replaced all Priuses with Corollas, and an equal number of regular trucks with hybrid ones, you’d save more total gas consumption over time.
Oh, also, why the hell is GMC still around?
$45,000? I see why they call it green.
Well done, fincar1, well done.
The crew cab thing drives me nuts with this. I know they use the back seats for the battery, but what about people who don’t need a crew cab?
With crew cab as is, we’re talking about $45K for a truck with a five and a half foot bed. My mom’s Escape could (assuming said stuff is lightweight) haul most of what this truck could, get the exact same fuel efficiency, and be just as comfortable in the back seats. Oh yeah, and have a $20K MSRP. I know the tailgate comes into play, but c’mon, trucks are supposed to be able to haul 4 x 8 sheets of plywood here.
@Luigiian:
But can the Escape haul your mom?
(Sorry, it just had to be asked…)
I’m LMAO at this classic!!! One of the myriad of reasons these fu**ing morons are going out of business. It’s a freaking truck! This immediately means a $25K limit, an that’s generous. Moreover, why buy a POS GM (who is an American traitor company by stealing your tax dollars) when you can buy a Toyota?
I’m shocked if rednecks (GM’s market) would buy GM products any longer, as they see everything Obama does, is stealing red-meat from their (and their wives) mouths. GM is good ole American welfare, and every purchase supports it.
maniceightball: The problem is that the hybrid system will not last as long as the truck. Around here, in Ohio, you can still find PLENTY of 1974-79 Ford F250s and other trucks soldiering on. These hybrids (all of them except maybe some crazy weird collector kept ones) will be gone, crushed, recycled, in about 15 years. The electronics and other systems will not last 35 years plus. More points to fail, more complexity, more problems. I had a bad airbag sensor on a car one time. Decided NOT to pay $380 plus the cost of tracking down which of the six it was and replacing it.
When I was a kid, in the early 60s, my grandfather, a farmer, owned a Dodge pick-up. It was ugly, had something called (I think) a slant six engine with “three on the tree”, but worked all day. It was probably good value, and affordable. Back then, a pick up truck was a working man’s horse. Now, I guess it’s just another form of luxobarge.
GM is nothing if not consistent. First, we have the $40K volt, and now the 45K pickup truck. In this economy, people are waiting outside the GM showrooms to order a pair of these practical vehicles. The reason they are called green is that it takes so much “green” to purchase one.
Attach a trailer to that thing and then give me the MPG. Getting good mileage unloaded with high gearing is easy.
The Hybrid Chevy Silverado starts at $39k and change. It is possible to run the price into the high $40’s though.
Oh, also, why the hell is GMC still around?
Next time you drive past a Buick/Pontiac dealer, stop in and ask them, back when they were profitable, if they could have survived without the GMC line. Or ask a Chevy dealer if they could have survived without the Chevy brand of what GMC sells. You’ll have your answer.
Of course nobody can survive in this environment.
I’m LMAO at this classic!!! One of the myriad of reasons these fu**ing morons are going out of business. It’s a freaking truck! This immediately means a $25K limit, an that’s generous. Moreover, why buy a POS GM (who is an American traitor company by stealing your tax dollars) when you can buy a Toyota?
I’m shocked if rednecks (GM’s market) would buy GM products any longer, as they see everything Obama does, is stealing red-meat from their (and their wives) mouths. GM is good ole American welfare, and every purchase supp….
Because the Silverado has better reliability than your Tundra, period. This has nothing to do with the stupid bailout, or who makes what where. The import nameplate is not always the best one. With trucks, that’s even more so. Why is this round of corporate welfare bothering you so much? Corporate welfare has been around for years. That’s why we have bloated defense budgets that don’t have a very good return on the dollar. It’s also why you pay more, percentage wise, than most fat cats when tax time rolls around.
I love me some imports (I’ve only ever driven imports) but jeez, if I wanted a truck, I know where I’d go. These trucks are on top for a reason.
Did you guys ever think that maybe this truck exists not to actually be a realistic purchase, but to appeal to the people who demand a hybrid (either from the company they are buying a car from, from the car they are buying, or supporting the company)?
I agree with Michael Ayoub…GM is in no political position to curtail any sort of hybrid program. Still, the idea of a work truck hybrid that can function as a work-site generator is truly fantastic. THAT GM idea is far more impressive to me than a few mpg gained on a towless, high gear cycle.
06M3S54B32…becauase Toyota just dosen’t make the best full-sized truck, and certainly dosen’t offer the incredible (mechanically significant) option range of the domestics. You want to talk about the mid-size offerings when flaming American product.
$45K! Woo hoo. Let’s party like it’s 2006. We’ll sell a milion of ’em. There are tons of sissified yuppies who want to improve their manliness by buying a big ass truck. Keep those housing ATMs gushing. Oh, wait. Oh, snap.
@06M3S54B32 The Silverado/GMC are the top selling vehicles in North America, thats a lot of rednecks
“If you buy GM you might just might be a redneck”
Nah…. I can’t see Jeff Foxworthy using it.
Blue Collar humour..you get it?Probably not eh?
The comments about base-level work trucks needing some attention are spot-on. I owned an ’83 GMC Sierra with vinyl seats and a rubber mat on the floor; it was a hand-me-down from my Dad’s business when he retired, and I finally got rid of it in 2000.
This hybrid truck is no doubt impressive, but it’s disappointing that the focus on profitable high-end units has left the entry-level work trucks with little progress, other than creature comforts. In particular, it’s a shame that GM’s early experience with diesels was such a nightmare. An excellent package for the trades, crafts and industry would be a W/T level truck with a reliable six-cylinder diesel. All the torque of a V8, with the ability to achieve 30 mpg or more on the highway.
The price does not seem too far out there when you go to Toyota’s site and see that the Tundra Crewmax Limited 4×2 starts at $38,545.
This hybrid truck is no doubt impressive, but it’s disappointing that the focus on profitable high-end units has left the entry-level work trucks with little progress, other than creature comforts.
If you were a brand or sales manager and kept getting tidy year-over-year bonuses for whoring out hundreds of thousands of glamour trucks at massive margins, wouldn’t you ignore the near-unprofitable work-truck strippers, too?
Pity that these erstwhile “kings of the world” couldn’t lend their genius to developing a sustainable business model.
@ BYZZ DOG
My neighbor has a Dodge Ram 3500 with the Inline 5 cummins engine and that only gets 23 mpg. Why do you think a 1/2 ton could get OVER 30 mpg?
30 is good. BUT DIFFICULT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT CURRENT SAFETY STANDARDS THAT ADD WIEGHT.
BUT I HOPE THEY DO IT!
15 TO 25,000 FOR A 1/2 TON DIESEL WITH 30 MPG.
ID BUY IT.
BUT ONLY IF IT HAD A FORD OR TOYOTA BADGE ON THE HOOD.
@westhighgoalie: My neighbor has a Dodge Ram 3500 with the Inline 5 cummins engine and that only gets 23 mpg. Why do you think a 1/2 ton could get OVER 30 mpg?
Excellent question. Your neighbor’s diesel is built on “old school” technology that was great for a market that existed a few years ago. What I’m talking about is a new type of diesel truck, using existing technology.
It could be done; a 1/2 ton would have less weight and frontal area than the “big boy” trucks that normally get the diesels. Also, I’m not referring to any current diesel engine that’s in use in full-sized trucks, but probably one of a smaller-displacement. Add in direct injection and you’d get a very clean and efficient package.
I went back and read the article more carefully…
$39K as a starting price is $5K better than I had thought but still easily $5K too high.
The article mentioned this:
“Since the efficiency improvements are so heavily weighted in favor of city driving, GM expects that its hybrid trucks will appeal mostly to fleet operators that do the majority of their driving in urban centers. ”
If GM Marketing really expects that to be the case, they should all be drug-tested immediately.
All the fleet pickups I see, especially doing delivery, are single-row. White. Stripped. 2WD. Usually with a decent-length bed (never short). The delivery operators (CarQuest, RoadRunner, QuickSilver) usually are seen in mid-size pickups, like Tacomas. In fact, more and more often, they ARE Tacomas.
Four doors? Full size? Loaded? What fleets are GM Marketing hallucinating about?
Michael Ayoub: “Did you guys ever think that maybe this truck exists not to actually be a realistic purchase, but to appeal to the people who demand a hybrid (either from the company they are buying a car from, from the car they are buying, or supporting the company)?”
Who is demanding this? Anybody demanding this surely isn’t demanding that it be $39K. If the Prius sells to people who want a hybrid or who want green cred (I don’t believe it – I think they’re interested in results), well, it can sell to these people because indulging these fantasies costs them somewhere between $2 and $5K extra(depending on what you reasonably compare it to).
Work trucks get bought on need but they also get bought by the book. Nobody who’s buying a work truck is reaching up an extra $20K or more to get a hybrid (and four doors) when it’s against the business case.
GM’s business case for developing this is largely imaginary. GM could have saved the company a LOT of money by Sacking Lutz before the GMT900 hybrid program got funded. And the Volt.
A far better way to become the fuel economy leader in this segment would be to leverage diesel and/or VCM technology. Or cheap start-stop.
—
Tedward,
I didn’t notice a reference to eletric power take-off in the article. If it has it, good, it’s a neat feature. But I can get decent small generators for under $1K. And they’re not tied to a truck. By spending $1K for the generator, you drive to site, unload the generator and take the truck to go do something else while the crew does whatever it is that the crew does. If the truck is your generator, the truck sticks around until the job is finished. You’re immobilizing a $39K asset to do the job of a $1K asset.
“That’s why we have bloated defense budgets that don’t have a very good return on the dollar.”
I’d call our nuclear carriers and the FA/18 super hornets a great return. Wait till 2012, I can guarantee you we will NOT have a bloated defense budget.
Buzzdog has hit the nail. GM who should have had their auto building license revoked for even tinkering with light weight diesels is off course. Ford and Dodge each are using antiquated diesels from medium duty trucks in the freight industry. They are loud, polluting, and just too big for the application. A Euro like solution is required with clean burning smaller diesels for light trucks is in order. 30mpg should be the target for the base model, with 25mpg actually achievable for most users. This would be 40% better than what gas trucks now get, and the Noise vibration, pollution factors would be way down. The base half ton pickup should come with a six cylinder base diesel and the three quarter and one tons should offer higher power versions. Small pickups like the ford ranger should have volkswagen sized four cylinder diesels. This alone would assure profitability for Detroit for another ten years. Maybe then a new type of power train would be ready for adaptation.
I’d be happy with a base two door single cab truck that could get 20 mpg in town and 26 on the highway.
I’d suffer with a small diesel engine, if need be – but a hybrid – no way, Jose.
SexCpotatoes
Electric motors have only one moving part, and while I agree that adding them to a car does increase the complexity, I’d argue that it’s not much. Also, electronics can be designed to last 100 years if they need to — the assumption that mechanical (really, pressure actuated mechanical) devices intrinsically last longer is an incorrect one. There are still devices running from the 1960s in much worse conditions than a typical truck will see.
Next time you drive past a Buick/Pontiac dealer, stop in and ask them, back when they were profitable, if they could have survived without the GMC line. Or ask a Chevy dealer if they could have survived without the Chevy brand of what GMC sells. You’ll have your answer.
My main point was that I don’t understand who they’re targetting. If the Yukon is almost identical to the Tahoe, why have it around? Ditto with the trucks. Is GMC supposed to be the “tough” brand? That would be admitting that the Silverado isn’t as tough, or that the Tahoe isn’t as rugged or something. But even that’s an idiotic marketing move, they were identical trucks.
If your argument is that the cars (Pontiacs, etc) weren’t profitable enough, then just sell the damned Chevy equivalents at the dealerships.
The way GM has been managed boggles the mind.
I’m surprised that so many of the B&B are surprised at the $45K price….. Hell, two years ago I was looking at pick ups with my brother and found many over $50K MSRP.
I believe any 3/4 or 1 ton Big 3 pickup spec’d out as a Crew Cab, Hi-line trim, Diesel engine and some other goodies will sticker out over $50K.
Add on:
As a guy who sold work trucks , I can tell you that guys who actually buy a truck to do work are not shopping based on MPG. They are looking for load carrying capacity (GVWR), trailering capacity, torque ….then looks and goodies.
“06M3S54B32…becauase Toyota just dosen’t make the best full-sized truck, and certainly dosen’t offer the incredible (mechanically significant) option range of the domestics. You want to talk about the mid-size offerings when flaming American product.”
Bla bla. . bla. . American cars are among the worst in the world. CR lists the worst 11, and I think almost 100% are American, and out of 41 tested, not one American vehicle made the list. The American car industry is mainly supported by the Government (stealing tax dollars), old people who remember WII, and the mentally challenged Americans.
@06M3S54B32
Consumer Reports? Really?
Lets see by,06M3S54B32s figuring.GM is now supported by people that remember ww11,the mentally challenged Americans.Oh yeah and rednecks
Dude! I love the way you think.Keep writing and insuting,our market is growing with every comment.
06M3S54B32
“American cars are among the worst in the world” sigh…
First of all, we’re talking trucks, and it’s fairly evident that American full-sized trucks are on top of their pile. I’ve driven and owned many myself, and I have driven more than a few (new) Tundras and Tacomas. Frankly, as I alluded to in my previous posts, the Tacoma is probably better than the Dakota and Ranger, but the Tundra just isn’t as good as it’s competition. Many of the awards that the Tundra earned came as a result of releasing their new (and yes, well done) truck towards the end of their competitor’s product cycles. The quality difference is nothing compared to the option gap though, try shopping a Ford or Chevy online and you’ll see just how many configurations are available. Toyota dosen’t come even ballpark close.
Citing CR leaves us almost nothing to talk about with regards to comparing useful information. Are you referring to their combined (ie useless) score? Is that really where you go to form opinions on cars?
KixStart…the generator comment was based on previous GM hybrid trucks, which did have the ability (never even saw one in person). I’d agree it’s really a gimick if you’re running a real worksite, especially considering the price of generators and the fact that everyone who needs one probably owns several by now. I’ve never seen a true work truck shopped on a difference of 1 or 2 mpg (as 63CorvairSpyder mentioned) but I could imagine a non-professional builder or specialist contractor having a use for the electrical system.
45k for a silverado. if someone can afford the much for any car or truck… why would they care about how much gas it drinks?
Anyone who quotes Consumer Reports is mentally challenged… Consumer Reports data is about as useful as saying my mothers fathers uncle once 20 years ago had an issue with his chevy pickup and that is why i wont buy one.