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These PHEV’s were the real green stars of the 2008 LA Auto Show. (http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/25330)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Cal_Cars_org_Prius_PHEV_News.jpgTriple Pundit – ENN – Nov. 17, 2007

A PHEV conversion would be at the top of everyone’s list but when they cost $12 – $21,000 more than the car itself, why are more not interested in the Hybrid Technologies BEV’s for less?

At the L.A. Auto Show this year, there were two separate award ceremonies for the Green Car of the Year 2008. Inside, at the "official" award ceremony, the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid was announced the winner. Outside, at an "unofficial" ceremony staged across the street, the Plug-In Toyota Prius Hybrid won the prize.

So which is the greenest car of the two? The Chevy Tahoe gets 20 mpg. The Plug-In Toyota Prius gets 100 mpg.

At the unofficial award ceremony, four Plug-In Toyota hybrids were on display by Plug-In Conversions and CalCars. These two enterprising organizations, along with the Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange, and PlugInAmerica, staged the "real" green award ceremony to send a message to major car manufacturers that increased fuel efficiency is possible and affordable to produce… http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/25330

the owner of our company, who i have mentioned before, drives as hybrid, as does his wife. he has been out of the country for two weeks on a trip. when he came back this week, he came up to my office to say hi, as he often does. when i told him about the tahoe, i thought he was going to puke......

then i told him about what i have been doing with my car, and i think that cheered him up a little.......

This is not as simplistic as comparing 21 mpg to 100 mpg. It is meaningless to name a vehicle "Green Car of the Year" unless it's available for consumers to buy. If they're not available, then they have no chance of making any kind of difference in emisisons or oil displacement. `

Plug-in hybrids are a great concept and they will hopefully make it to the consumer market sooner than later. But today they cost over $10,000 more than a conventional hybrid and there clearly needs to be more experience with these vehicles before they are declared a "consumer" product. Even HyMotion, which says it will market plug-in kits next year, will be focusing on fleets (and not consumers) at approved conversion centers.

Let's pull for plug-ins but not be blinded to the reality that they are not yet ready for prime-time. And while we're at it, let's acknowledge that vehicles of all types -- including SUVs -- will be around for some time. All of them need to achieve much better fuel efficiency. The real Green Car of the Year is the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, which Green Car Journal recognized in part because of its 50 percent improvement in city fuel economy...a milestone never before seen in a large SUV. All vehicles need this kind of fuel efficiency improvement.

GreenCar.com

Hi Greencar:

___Welcome to CleanMPG and I hope you find some information of interest.

___I can say a ton about the Tahoe and Yukon 2-Modes myself. See the review section for a quick take. In the larger scheme of things, a 21 mpg combined SUV w/ Tier II/Bin5 smog forming emissions rating does not help our country or the planet. I could post a book here but let me allow Dan Neil of the LA Times to provide the rebuttal given he has far better prose and a much further reach than I ever will.

Doing well, not good (http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil28nov28,0,7471449.story?coll=la-highway1-reviews-car)



At the recent L.A. Auto Show, the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid was named Green Car of the Year by the influential and subscription-worthy Green Car Journal. This selection struck many people as utterly, utterly meshuga. People like me, for instance.

In the fullness of time -- about two weeks, the duration of my most profound contemplation -- I still can't wrap my head around it. The Tahoe Hybrid averages 21 miles per gallon, an improvement in overall economy of about 30%.

The Green Car Journal jurists looked at the Tahoe Hybrid and -- if I may reconstruct their thoughts -- concluded that it was an enormous net gain in efficiency, in a vehicle class that's anything but efficient. They might have also thought that, given GM's not-so-distant history of sneering at hybrids, the award would acknowledge and encourage right thinking. And they couldn't have been oblivious to the sociocultural dimension: Hybrids and fuel efficiency have been posed on one side of our discourse -- the blue side -- and SUVs like the Tahoe and Hummer have been put on the other. Advocates of the former have been derided as tree-huggers; the latter, eaters of infants. In the Tahoe Hybrid one might see an entente cordiale. And yet.

It seems to me the objections to the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid's being called "green" fall into three categories:

Symbolic: The Tahoe Hybrid is not merely a Prius that can tow a boat. It is a 5,716-pound supertanker of a vehicle that is still twice the mass necessary to do the job it's typically assigned to do, that is, move a person or persons in and out of the suburbs. The Green Car Journal award seems to enable the continuing American fixation on super-sized vehicles.

Practical: The charge is "greenwashing," which is to say, the Tahoe Hybrid program will be a painfully small-volume effort that will net more positive media than real economy.

Strategic: This is the strongest objection. In a time of surpassing urgency -- whether your pet issue is global warming, oil security or economic disruption -- we are accepting, even rewarding relatively modest and incremental changes in efficiency that require no sacrifice, no change in consumer behavior at all. This isn't going to get it done, people. The notion that American drivers can sally on as before, driving the miles and tonnage they do, and only the technology under the hood has to change, is complete bollocks. We will incrementalize ourselves to the crack of doom.

This week, congressional negotiators are hammering out the last dents in an energy bill that will raise fuel economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020 (the United States has the lowest fuel economy standards of any industrialized nation). It appears the House-Senate compromise bill would preserve the distinction between cars and trucks, holding pickups and SUVs to much lower fuel economy standards. The automakers fought hard to keep the second set of rules, and with good reason. As the Tahoe Hybrid proves, it's probably mechanically impossible to make a huge, 5,617-pound truck (76.9 inches tall, 79 inches wide and 202 inches long) meet the 35-mpg rule. With all the exertion of technology in the 2008 Tahoe Hybrid, it would still have to nearly double its fuel economy in 12 years. Not without plutonium, it won't.
___I applaud GM for their efforts w/ the 2-Mode but gasoline at $3.00 per and climbing to god knows what in the next few years does not show me green anything from a 21 mpg SUV. PS, it is worth over 30 ;) ;) ;) But not much over 30 :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne