Recent news about Hybrid SUV’s:
Posted April 3, 2008 by James R. Healey | USA Today
USAToday.com
Yukon hybrid curtails guzzling but big price for small savings
Do the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid SUV and mechanically identical GMC Yukon hybrid save fuel? Enough to justify their high prices? Has hybridization made them weenies? The answers after a week in a GMC Yukon rear-wheel-drive hybrid: Yes. Iffy. Not exactly.
…Mark Cieslak, chief engineer for the big hybrids, says he spent 14 hours driving around trying to keep the dashboard fuel-economy pointer dead center — meaning best mileage — and got, he says, 25.3 mpg, according to the trip computer. Continue to full story…
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Posted March 10, 2008 by Mark Solheim | Kiplinger
Kiplinger.com
Guilt-Free SUV?
Even with painfully high gasoline prices, sales of crossovers remain brisk. But sales of truck-based SUVs have been sagging, so now GM is trying to revive interest with hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe and its sibling, the GMC Yukon. GMC even ran a 60-second commercial for the Yukon Hybrid during the Super Bowl, an animated short of Sisyphus rolling a boulder uphill with the tag line “Never say never.”
Does anyone crave a huge SUV hybrid that costs more than $50,000? I’m not so sure. Read full article here…
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Posted March 7, 2008 by Peter Valdes-Dapena | CNN
CNNMoney.com
Hybrid Tax Credit Shock
If you bought a hybrid vehicle last year, and you were counting on a tax credit, you may be in for a nasty surprise.
You should already know that if you bought a Toyota or Lexus hybrid after Oct. 1, 2007, it isn’t eligible for a tax credit. Toyota sold more than 60,000 hybrid vehicles in the United States that were eligible for the full credit by the summer of 2006, so the government began phasing out tax incentives for the company’s hybrids beginning in the fall of that year. By the fall of 2007, the credits were gone. Full article here…
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Posted February 13th 2008 by Roland Jones | MSNBC
Newsweek.com
Big, Hulking SUV’s Start Turning Green
Americans are voting with their feet when it comes to hybrid vehicles.
“While the overall vehicle market is declining, sales of hybrids are growing, and we’re seeing a lot of activity in the SUV segment,” said Bradley Berman, editor of the Web site HybridCars.com. “Virtually every hybrid announcement in the last two years has been about SUVs, and so you can see there’s a trend here, and old notions about SUVs and hybrids being distinct are being thrown out.” Full article here…
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Posted Dec 17th 2007 5:29PM by Jonathon Ramsey
Autoblog.com
Porsche Cayenne Hybrid delayed until at least 2010
Porsche came out swinging at the LA Auto Show with a Cayenne Hybrid it said could do 75 MPH on battery power alone. Now the carmaker isn’t sure it wants to fight that fight any more. Speaking of hybrid market share, Porsche’s head of distribution said, “The most optimistic forecast still only calls for a market share of 5 percent.” And in that case, Porsche feels it might not be worth it to bring out a Cayenne Hybrid until the introduction of the next generation in 2010. Read the full story here.
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By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — An energy bill that requires the average fuel economy of all the nation’s cars and trucks to be 35 miles per gallon by 2020 sounds sweeping, but don’t look for any immediate big changes in the kinds of vehicles sold in this country.
The energy bill was voted down in the Senate Thursday but not because of the fuel rules, which have wide industry and political support. Democrats have said they will strip out the other parts that are holding the bill back so the fuel economy portion can move forward.
On the face of it, 35 mpg may sound like a huge leap. It would be the first major increase in fuel-economy standards in more than 30 years, and there are only a couple of mass-market cars - the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid - that actually get Environmental Protection Agency-estimated fuel economy better than 35 mpg in combined city and highway driving. Read the full story here.
