I'm surprised only 1 in 5 vehicles sold are compact - - - and this reflects a recent uptick in compact cars. Even plug-in/hybrid cars have an environmental impact that would decrease as cars get more fuel efficient, so it just seems foolish buy a hybrid SUV over a hybrid of any other flavor.

biodiesel/electric plug-in hybrid!

When a Prius get 45-50mpg, a "hybrid" that does 20mpg is laughable. Jeep has an hgh-end hybrid engine for one of its vehicles that gains, IIRC, a big 2mpg over the V8.

Too many manufacturers are building hybrids tweeked for "performance" and not economy.

And the public isn't biting...

I used to participate in the GM Blogs. People there were convinced that no one would buy a Prius because of its $4000 premium over something like the Corolla.

European automakers predict:

With the increased efficiency of gasoline engines.

In parallel to: The stagnating eficiency of disel engines and their higher cost.

Diesel engines sales will drop significantly and be replaed by efficient gasoline engines. Thus, your information might be incorrect::

"There will always be people that need/want large vehicles, but in the future will they be powered by diesel, hybrid drive trains, fuel cells, or some other fuel?"

Where's my hybrid min-van already?! I would love to have a nice euro-style minvan but can't get one in the U.S. Phooey on U.S. car manufacturers.

Just another brillant idea from GM almost as good as the Flex-fuel ................sorry Pedro no tortillas tonight for the family my wife needs to drive little Billy and Suezy to soccer practice.......

but ooooh there so shinny.......bling bling

I don't know. I think the Ford Escape may sell better in part because of it's higher gas mileage. However, the main issue is "How does this car/truck/suv keep me from constantly going to the pump?

I hope the stupid American car companies take the hint and roll over and die.

I do commend Chevy for at least trying to create a decent Hybrid SUV, as there ARE truly organizations that need SUVs (such as police depts.), and any gas saving is better than none.

What i don't understand is why Chevy insisted on creating the hybrid version only on the biggest/extended version of the Tahoe? In order to get the hybrid, you have to get the version w/ the 3rd row seating which is also longer and heavier than their other Tahoes. Why couldn't they put the same technology into their shorter versions? One would think there would be even better gas mileage (although only slightly) due to the lack of increased weight.

But I would think that when they finally deliver on their hybrid Silverado that it might sell a little better for small business such as landscapers and the like that need a full-size truck in order to do their work.

Hybrid Tahoe = pig in lipstick.

She may be pretty but no thanks, she's not my type.

I'll be impressed when they make a plug-in hybrid SUV/mini-van that can get at least 30 miles on all electric and 20-30 mpg with gas.
These car makers have the technology, they just don't want to use it.

Efficiency over power and performance; It's as simply as that. Make them light, give them small hybrid engines. We don't want 0-60 in 4 seconds, we want 60mpg.

How many green washed cars have to be introduced and flop before they get the idea.

I always thought it to be a mistake to focus on hybridizing large truck-based SUV's and such behemoths. The people that would buy Tahoes and Navigators and such are not the same people that would buy hybrids or plug-in hybrids.

.You know what's even funnier than the Tahoe gas mileage--the fact that the Lexus GS450h doesn't get much better mileage, and it's a sedan. But I forgot, GM is the evil empire, so that fact doesn't matter, does it.

Oh really? Hybrid SUV flopped? Darn, I thought they had a good idea! /sarcasm

While making a gas-guzzler into a gas-guzzler with the word hybrid on the back, they effectively continue to make cars that no one will want to buy as gas prices increase.

Gas is $4. Predictions are saying $7-8 next year. People want efficient cars. Try making a car designed around fuel efficiency, and get back to me when it's ready. I think Aptera will be first to do that.

I disagree with many of these comments. We all know that SOME people (perhaps not us) do want and a few even use/need large vehicles, be they large SUVs for large families in snow country or large pickup trucks for contractors.

So, let's do some math. Let's say I have a Prius that gets 50MPG and an original Tahoe that gets 14MPG. So should we make the Prius a plug-in at 100MPG for $10k, or the Tahoe a hybrid at $4k premium?

If one family buys each, for every 100 miles driven, the 100mpg Prius saves... 1 gal. The new 20mpg Tahoe "saves" (yes, I realize it's a relative thing) 2.14 gal. Yes, adding 6mpg to a low mileage vehicle saves more gas per vehicle than adding 50mpg to a high mileage vehicle, all distances assumed equal.

So some people are going to buy small cars, and some are going to buy large cars. If we can convince the large car buyers to spend their disposable income on hybrids, they'll be doing more "relative" good than convincing a small car buyer to get a hybrid.

Look people, it's not optimal, but it's a heck of a start. Don't bash GM for trying to catch up in areas where others aren't investing. Yes, GM blew it for years and they deserve to be beaten up a bit for it, but the assumption that a hybrid large vehicle is a waste is flawed thinking and poor math.

Its kind of hard to validate the additional initial cost of these vehicles when they only get about 2 mpg better fuel efficiency than their non-hybrid counterparts. I was at a Chevy dealership the other day and was unpleasantly surprised when I saw that the hybrid version (I think I was looking at the Tahoe) got barely any gas saving advantage over the normal version.

It's seems odd to me that the investment the oil companies have in American automakers is so large that their voice (which undoubtedly demands less fuel economy than the average consumer wants) keeps fuel economy so low that the domestic automakers continue to lose market share and credibiltiy. I for one am close to permanently writing off all the domestics when I buy my next new car.

I'm afraid that as Chrysler, FoMoCo and GM stocks lose even more value, that it will have a serious negative impact on many common peoples retirement plans. After all, our IRA's and 401k's are invested in them too.

Why did the the Chevy Tahoe hybrid fail?
Could it be that the people who buy the Chevy Tahoe are not the people who buy hybrid cars? .. Why yes, it could be just that.

People who buy a huge SUV are not making “green” choices, they are making 'big car' choices. I think it has a lot to do with overcompensating.

Big surprise. A US car company takes an energy efficient solution and throws it into a monstrous vehicle where it won't be attractive. For crying out loud. The folks most interested in purchasing a hybrid are those steering clear of the SUV market to begin with... and it's a shocker when they don't perform well in the market? What are they thinking?

Hybrids, in general, are still way too expensive for mass-market appeal, so there is no reason for thinking these are going to sell any better than they are now. Add to this the fact that it can take 30 years for a high percentage of change over from one generation of vehicles to the next, and that newer technologies, such as the hybrid, take even longer to penetrate the mass-market and we're looking at hybrids never really taking off. IMHO - Another technology may even step in and take the reigns far before the current hybrid offerings are ever fully adopted.

I think the idea to build a hybrid SUV is stupid in the first place. First of all, they cost about $10,000 more than their ordinary gas powered counterparts, they get AT MOST 3-5 mpg better than the normal ones, AND they are VERY expensive to work on, and they require expensive and specialized equipment to work on them with. Maybe we should take a lesson from the europeans on how to make fuel efficient cars. They have diesel powered cars, that are NOT hybrids, that get anywhere from 50 to over 70 mpg.