Holy Schmoly, this is going to be interesting...A giant SUV just won the Green Car of the Year Award and I think my brain might explode.
We think the Tahoe is a kinda lame vehicle, just like the Excursion and the Sequoia and all the other too-big, too-powerful SUVs. But the fact is, no one can stop car companies from making them if people want to buy them. And people do want to buy them -- almost a third of cars sold are still large SUVs. As much as that sucks, we can't stop it without government intervention...and we're still waiting to see how that turns out.
So as long as people are buying these behemoths to haul their yachts up 17% grades at 70 mph (or get the kids home from school...y'know...whichever) it's probably a good idea to try and make them more fuel-efficient. And the Chevy Tahoe 2 Mode hybrid absolutely does that.
I suppose that's why the Chevy Tahoe 2 Mode Hybrid became the "Green Car of the Year." It's really strange to see such a colossal vehicle getting strapped with that label, but it's also hard to deny the power of the innovations that make this radical increase in fuel efficiency possible.
The Tahoe gets the same city fuel efficiency as a 2008 Honda Accord. In city driving, the Tahoe rarely even turns on its gasoline engine, and 2 mode system allows the electric engine to continue assisting the car even at very high speeds, further increasing highway economy as well.
City drivers will get a more than 50% increase in fuel economy by switching to the hybrid. While 21mpg isn't a big shocking number, it is technology being used to improve the environment. So we're going to try to stop complaining about the fact that they exist...and move on to being happy that they're being improved.
So tell me... is the Green Car Journal crazy for not giving this award to a smaller car? Or were the options just so thin on the ground that they had to go with the most interesting technology in the bunch? Or does the Tahoe Hybrid truly deserve to be called a green(er) car?
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11-15-2007, 06:03 PM
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