There's fewer advantages to using a Diesel engine in a hybrid vehicle. Hybrids gain their efficiency from two main areas: the regenerative braking that's used to charge the batteries; and by reducing the amount of time the gasoline engine has to run at light loads. Gasoline engines are horribly inefficient at light loads whereas Diesels do not have this shortcoming.

In conditions where the vehicle doesn't need much energy to move it down the road, either the gasoline engine is shut off completely (using the electric motor for propulsion) or it does double-duty propelling the vehicle and charging the batteries. This way the time the gas engine is running at part loads is greatly minimized.

When you factor in the diminishing fuel economy gains of a Diesel hybrid, plus the added cost and weight of a Diesel engine versus gasoline, it doesn't make much sense to go Diesel hybrid.

 

That's ok, just screw the hybrid and give me a Turbo Diesel Cobalt and Aveo...



EDIT: And thow that setup in a Colorado too and you'll definitely get my attention.!

 

You're right, GM does lead in a few areas if you break it down further. The main point of my post was in wondering how to justify the claim of leading "across the board...segment by segment".

I was going to go through that site and try to do some direct model to model comparisons, but the data aren't organized very well for that kind of thing and I gave up. However the general pattern seems to be that the pushrod engines (LSx, HVV6) get better fuel economy than their cammer cousins.

 

I think it's brilliant that GM is going after the bigger vehicles. So the transplants have an edge with consumer perception, let's not forget, they didn't get this edge all on their own! I know we're not ALL mindless drones who buy what we're told, we don't ALL believe they are just adding to the "American landscape" ( what a steaming pile btw). We have a media cabal in this country, and abroad with an agenda, and it doesn't include GM. Their subtlety is what has some fooled into buying what they are told. I guess this is one of the things that burns my *** the most, and is IMO the real reason why GM won't just put everything out all at once...right now. Instead, they will continue to put out stuff little by little. Isn't it a bit ironic, that some of those same ppl flaunt their prius' as if to say, look at me........ I care about the environment! When in reality what GM is doing, is actually better for the ACTUAL environment, instead of some wussies bloated ego. And Furthermore...............I'm going to eat now. Damn, I've been doing so well lately ......Oh well!

 

When I started this thread I was really thinking about what might be coming in the next few years. GM has been tooling around with E85 vehicles for years, and lately with hydrogen. They seem to be positioning themselves well for the future. Oil prices are going up, there is no denying that (not to mention oil itself is a limited resource). If we could mix E85 and throw in this BAS hybrid system I've been hearing about, wouldn't that be an ideal combination? E85 fuel can supposedly be made from corn, (now I live in Nebraska and I can tell you we have plenty of corn to go around) So mix hybrid technology, E85, a surplus of corn, and high oil prices, and maybe we have something. Or, if GM could find a way to perfect hydrogen we could see some interesting cars.

I guess in the end infrastructure is the biggest hurdle. The Fbodfather said that there are a few E85 cars already out there, but in Omaha, Nebraska there is only one E85 refueling station. I'm sure they would be selling more E85 Impalas if I could boogie down the street and find somewhere to fill it up. As it is, I would have to drive about 15-20 miles just to get to a station.

 

Ethanol is still a pipe dream. We've had indepth threads on this before, but basically the fact is that taking into account the entire process, it takes more energy to produce ethanol than it can actually provide to a motor vehicle. So like hydrogen, it's more of an energy carrier than an energy source. The only reason ethanol is getting the play it does is because of Archer Daniels Midland and their ability to persuade congress to spend your money on subsidizing it.

Personally I think ethanol is a dead end. While hydrogen is similarly limited with today's technology, I believe hydrogen will eventually be the prime energy source when fossil fuels cease to be viable. Certainly not for a long time out, and probably not even in our lifetimes, but eventually oil will have to be replaced, and hydrogen is the most likely candidate. To this end GM's work on fuel cells is a step in the right direction, unfortunately I don't think the timing, logistics, and economics are going to work out for them in the near term.

 

Thanks for clarifying that up... I thought that might have been the case... but as long as GM could buy some time before the hybrid-hydrogen systems are introduced, GM will continue to be far more eco-friendly than Toyota IMO... even though the majority might believe otherwise.