Eco-Smooth: Gm Shows Even Big Suvs Can Be Green Now

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.

Numerous aerodynamic improvements all over the outside help efficiency, too.

And you don’t give up trucklike qualities. You can trailer 6000 pounds, and the rig has a GVWR of 12,000 pounds. Try that in a Prius.

GM’s 2-Mode Hybrid can make even huge SUVs palatable to the eco-sensitive. It can be used on just about every GM car or truck, so expect to see it elsewhere in the lineup real soon.

You can see this one in showrooms by the end of the year. Prices will come out a month ahead, but it won’t be the most expensive Tahoe/Yukon on the lot.

autoweek.com