For MY2005, the Silverado Hybrid was limited to sale in a few states (California, Washington, Florida... maybe one or two others). This was stated right on the Silverado website.

For the new MY2006 website, I see no restrictions... does this mean full U.S. availability now?

Also, the specs page doesn't seem to show the fuel economy for the hybrid setup... anyone know the hybrid numbers?

 

I've read the 2006 will be avalible nation wide.

Gas milage is only about 2mpg better than a regular Silverado (10-12%). I expect (hope) the GMT900 hybrids get at least 4-5mpg better.

With gas about to hit $4 a gallon, a V6 Diesel in the 1500's would have been a big winner. What a rough time for the 900's to come out. They should have best in class fuel economy and I hope GM advertises the crap out of that.

 

I wouldn't waste your money on any hybrid. Gas will go back down eventually. May be a few months but it will.

Although, I agree they need a 40mpg diesel V6 in the 1500...

 

Well, I doubt I would personally buy the hybrid, just because it generally takes 10-15 YEARS to recover that cost in fuel savings... though, with the inflated gas pricing, that could be more like 5-10 years now...

But, with the gas-price hysteria right now... it could be a big seller for GM.

I just think it'd be a great P.R. thing for GM to get word of the Silverado Hybrid out to everyone... look at the good press and goodwill the Escape Hybrid has brought to Ford.


Also, if they sstart building hybrids in more bulk, perhaps costs can come down... who knows?

 

Avalibility, We've got one, its kinda cool, but probably more expensive then its worth...

its got full on electric plugs in the bed for all your power tool needs.

these are designed to be work trucks not really Mr Green Trucks

GM said they are working at the least fuel efficent vehicles first...

 

Well, the silverado is a mild-hybrid and not really a full one. Only advantage really on the Silverado hybrid is the engine shutoff at stoplights, and that's about it. That's why it only gains a 1mpg improvement over the regular silverado's. It isn't as significant as the Escape Hybrids or the Toyota/Honda's.

but GM is working on a full hybrid with DCX. I don't know that'll show up on trucks, but we should start seeing them in cars soon.

What i would really like to see from GM is more diesels. I wouldn't buy a hybrid car, but would consider a diesel. Right now, Honda offers a great turbodiesel in their european Accord (our TSX) and it gets 42.2mpg in city driving and 61.4mpg on the highway with a combined fuel economy of 52.3mpg . At 0-60 in 9seconds, it's still quicker than the prius/civic/insight hybrids and gets just as good a fuel economy as them. And from what i've heard, it's a very refined engine. Definitly something i'd like to see stateside. if GM were to offer something like that, i'd be all over it. Good economy without having to worry about batteries and such.

 

OK, I didn't realize all that... I haven't seen MPG ratings for the hybrid, so I was assuming it offered more than 1MPG improvements....

 

GM should (if they're not already? ) be using DOD (displacement on demand) along with the Hybrid arrangement on their trucks ... I'm sure that you'd see much better economy out of them then. I think DOD is a great idea (I realize it's not "new", but the new system actually works ).

... on a side note, with gas prices the way they are, I've been considering pulling half the plug & injector wires off my car recently due to these gas prices?!!?

 

They do use DOD along with the Hybrid system. Really this hybrid system is just a really good generator that gives you 110V capability. The next system will be a true full on hybrid.

 

Natural Gas Hybrid - Good Idea???

Just wondering as Natural Gas will stay cheaper then Propane and can just plug into my Gas line at home...

I'm too lazy right now to look up the comparison for Energy/$ for NG vs Gasoline at current prices... Good time to be in the North Am. Natural Gas market...

 

DoD is supposed to increase fuel ecconomy by 8% on the Impala, if they had a hybrid that could do 10%-20% and DoD that had 8% you're looking at 28% increase of 16-20 mpg on a 5.3 Silverado... for a high of 28% efficency 20.5-25.6 mpg that would be industry leading out of a truck...

 

I dont think you can really add those together.

My understanding is that hybrid techonology is mostly only effective in city driving, while DoD is the oposite, it only really makes a fidderence on the highway.

I think both would complement each other very well.

I wonder if the curent honda accord hybrid uses both of those technologies.

 

well DoD would be less effective on a v6... but if they could build the truck engines like the vette engines we wouldnt need DoD or anything they'd have excellent fuel ecconomy

 

The reason why corvette gets such great fuel economy is not MOSTELY because of the engine...only in part.

The real reason why it gets so good gaz mileage, and why the trucks dont, is because of basic laws of phisics.

The corvette is very light and aerodynamic vehicule. Not to mention its gearing helps a lot to.

You couldnt just put the drive train of a corvette into a truck and beleive you would get great gas mileage and keep all the utility and towing capacity in your truck.