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The Tahoe Hybrid is smart, smooth and strong, but it's a lot of vehicle for a little environmental progress. (http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil26dec26,0,4920103.story?coll=la-class-autos-highway1)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Chevrolet_Tahoe_2-Mode.jpgDan Neil – LA Times – Dec. 26, 2007

Although not news, it is another take on the 2-Mode’s plus’ and minus’. -- Ed.

The Chevy Tahoe Hybrid is as provocative and political a vehicle as you'll see this year. Why, it's practically a polemic. And those are just the "P's."

By way of a fantastic exertion of technology and human capital -- which I hereby honor and praise even as I question them as misallocated -- GM has managed to give one of its behemoth SUVs marginally better fuel economy. Here are the relevant data points: The two-mode hybrid Tahoe returns an EPA estimated fuel economy of 21 miles per gallon in the city, 22 mpg highway; the 4x4 version gets an even 20/20, city/highway. The company and its various choristers -- such as the Green Car Journal, which recently named the Tahoe Hybrid "Green Car of the Year" -- are pleased to point out that represents up to a 50% improvement of in-city fuel economy over the non-hybrid Tahoe.

The objectors have rebelled against the symbolism of the thing. It might be half-again better, but it's still an awful, blot-out-the-sun SUV. Isn't this like putting handlebar tassels on the wingtips of a 767 jet?

I had a chance to spend a couple of days in the Tahoe Hybrid; in fact, I believe the vehicle I drove was the same one that appeared on the show stand at the recent L.A. auto show -- white, with gold "Hybrid" decals along the scuppers. People have accused Prius owners of being ostentatiously green, but the badge-barnacled Tahoe Hybrid might as well have roof-mounted green emergency lights and a "Green Green!" whoop siren… http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil26dec26,0,4920103.story?coll=la-class-autos-highway1

Of course there will be those that will say a hybrid Tahoe is better than a conventional Tahoe, which I grudgingly agree.

Can't resist asking this question: What if the Democrats delivered the Energy Bill in a 2-mode Tahoe, rather than a Prius? (see story reported here (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7847)) For some reason, it seems sending a message of both energy thrift and support of the domestic auto industry would have been better served using an FEH.

I wonder if the mega-boat it's towing in the slideshow on page 2 is a hybrid too? Or perhaps it should have been shown towing a sailboat?;)

I think a lot of the reasons people get SUV's now is because everyone else has them. In my neighborhood there are way too many suburbans and other suv's. At least this gives those people an option to get the same giant car but use a little less gas.

It's a big beautiful SUV, but it still guzzles a lot of gas.

It's a way to keep people in big, profitable trucks and give them a fig leaf to cover the environmental unmentionables.

Hi 98 CRV:
It's a way to keep people in big, profitable trucks and give them a fig leaf to cover the environmental unmentionables.___That was about the best summation I have heard yet!

___GM was really pushing Ethanol and performance at the Detroit Autoshow and I just do not see how they are going to survive the next decade without offering a lot more electrified platforms. The Tahoe/Yukon are going to be huge electricity users if they were to go PHEV and I pray they do not. The $50K + to put one into the garage is going to keep their volumes extremely low anyway …

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I got behind one of those Hybrid Tahoes on the PA Turnpike the other day. Are all of them white, or did they only sell the one? Is the giant "HYBRID!!!!! LOOK, I'M A HYBRID!!!!! " sticker on the back window a stock part?
The way that guy was driving it, he was probably only getting the mileage of a standard one anyway!