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Gm Shows Even Big Suvs Can Be Green Now. (http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/FREE/70828047/1024/FREE)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Chevrolet_Tahoe_DualMode_Hybrid.jpgMark Vaughn – Autoweek – Aug. 28, 2007

The GM 2Mode SUV’s like the Chevrolet Tahoe shown are being driven and are showing GM’s technological prowess with good results so far.

If not for the dash display, you might not know this was a green(er) machine. The transitions between modes of GM’s 2-Mode Hybrid SUV—all-electric, eight cylinders, four cylinders and varying combinations—are imperceptible, and that includes the mode where it stops and starts the V8 engine. A 40 percent increase in EPA city mileage is nothing to spit at, either.

Some will say that all SUVs, however efficient, should be crushed and recycled into plowshares to be used to raise organic beets. That’s not realistic. There always will be buyers for large SUVs. Some people need them for reasons besides vanity, and now those people can make better use of the gas remaining in their large tanks.

The 2-Mode has two electric motors with four fixed gear ratios that can be employed more efficiently at a wider range of speeds. Active fuel management makes the eight-to-four-cylinder deactivation seamless. And unlike earlier hybrids on full-size GM trucks, this one can go on battery power alone for two miles at 32 mph. It can cruise on four cylinders at 80 mph … http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/FREE/70828047/1024/FREE

Some will say that all SUVs, however efficient, should be crushed and recycled into plowshares to be used to raise organic beets.

Wrong. Green beans, asparagus, sweet corn, tomatoes, anything but beets!

Harry

If the 2mode premium is under $5k, the buyer should do just fine as far as ROI goes. My quick-and-dirty calculations estimate a $750-$1000 annual gas savings (assuming 15 mpg vs 20 mpg).

Hi Ashen:

___GM has stated in the recent past their 2-Mode’s will be priced between the base and the top of the line but who knows how de-contented they will be when they arrive? What scares me the most is they will screw up the little things that make hybrid ownership so endearing (great LCD based FCD’s, great FE and a somewhat decent price) and that alone could make their respective audience despise hybrids well into the future. Given what they are doing with BAS, I sure hope they do not pull the same garbage with 2-Mode as that is all they have until the PHEV’s arrive …

___Good Luck

___Wayne

On the GM website, it looks like the 2mode SUVs will have a LCD panel that shows the vehicle's energy status and fuel consumption as well as a graphical representation of what drive system is being employed (gas, electric, both, or neither). If they implement their concept display panel in the real truc, it should keep most folk happy.

Hi Ashen:

___Were you looking at the GM Tahoe Hybrid NAVI-Mimic (http://www.chevrolet.com/pop/hybrid/2007/highlights_en.jsp)?

___The following is the std. instrument cluster for the Chevrolet Tahoe 2-Mode. I can see Auto Stop and possibly an EV mode on the bottom of the tach and what looks like a charge/assist indicator behind the tranny shift lever but that is about it? Where are the i and aFCD’s?

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/GM_2-Mode_Tahoe_Instrument_cluster.jpg

___Good Luck

___Wayne

GM tends to hide the FCD in the radio. Strange, but they do exist in many GM vehicles that I've rented.

GM should not shy away from displaying what the hybrid engine is doing - most here would find that a selling point.