Hybrid SUV Reviews

Christmas is now less than a week away and our writers are gearing up to begin reporting on the changes you will see in the new 2010 and 2011 hybrid SUV models. With holiday music filling my office, I am staring out the window at more than a foot of snow on the ground - pondering. What would be the one hybrid vehicle I’d like to see announced in the next 12 months? Well, as crazy as it sounds - it would have to be a Toyota Prius SUV or a Prius crossover vehicle.

Mitsubishi made some electric noise earlier this year when they started testing their battery powered, zero-emission i-MiEV (electric vehicle) in Tokyo. It was questionable whether this tiny car (scheduled to go on sale in April 2010) would ever get built, but a recent report from Edmunds indicates that all 1,400 i-MiEV’s scheduled for the initial production run have already been presold.

It has been several months since we got to tell you about a new hybrid SUV, and even though this one is currently just a concept vehicle, it is still exciting news. If you’ve been following some of the buzz (no pun intended) at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show, you know that this year it is all about electric vehicles. In fact, over three dozen plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles are on display at this year’s show.

At the 2009 auto show in New York this spring, Hyundai rolled out the latest incarnation of the hybrid SUV crossover, the Nuvis. Sleek and futuristic, the Nuvis combines the spaciousness of a large sedan with the wide-bodied handling of a sporty SUV. Motortrend’s review of the Nuvis also claims that the hybrid SUV gets four miles more per gallon than the Ford Escape hybrid SUV, which is about 34-35 miles per gallon (the Escape gets about 30 MPG).

How did we jump from hybrid SUV’s that get about 30 miles per gallon to hearing about one that gets 100 to 150 mpg?  For the past month or so, a company based near Seattle, Washington has been getting a ton of press about an “extreme hybrid sport utility vehicle” that can reportedly be driven 150 miles on just one gallon of gas.

At last year’s Frankfurt Auto Show (2007), BMW debuted a concept vehicle known as the X6 (photos).  Half crossover - half sports car, the X6 ActiveHybrid (BMW dubs it the world’s first Sports Activity Coupe) gave us our first look at how BMW might use the hybrid knowledge they gained via their collaboration with DiamlerChrysler and General Motors (details here).  Fast forward to the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, and BMW’s EfficientDynamics initiative appears to be in full swing with the introduction of the concept X5 Hybrid-Diesel SUV.

If you’re keeping close tabs on what’s happening as the auto industry continues to flirt with greener cars and suv’s, you’re likely hearing about several upcoming vehicles that might someday challenge hybrids for fuel efficient supremacy.  Only a couple of months ago, Congress passed the 35 MPG Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard to require car manufacturers to dramatically improve new vehicle fuel efficiencies by 2020.  Judging by the concept cars and suvs we’re seeing at the most recent auto shows, it’s officially “Game On”.

Another big auto show, another concept hybrid suv.  Interestingly though, this ones a little different than all the rest.  Unlike the mammoth hybrids that debuted in 2006 and 2007, Land Rover jumps on the scene at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show (aka the North American International Auto Show) with the LRX (Land Rover Exchange?), a 3 door, 4X4, smaller than the Freelander, turbodiesel/electric hybrid suv.