GMC Quietly Markets Hybrid Pickups

[Ming]

GMC quietly markets hybrid pickups
BY STEVEN COLE SMITH
The Orlando Sentinel

From the outside, the extended-cab GMC Sierra pickup truck looked like any other, except for a small badge on each front fender that said "hybrid."

Hybrid? General Motors builds a hybrid pickup truck? Alert the media!

Certainly Toyota gets its share of headlines with the Prius hybrid. So does Honda, with the Insight and Civic Hybrid. Ford is pumping the public relations machine to get the word out about its Escape Hybrid. So why have we heard so little about a hybrid version of the full-sized GMC and Chevrolet pickup trucks?

Maybe GM wanted to sneak the hybrid pickups onto the market and see how well they work. Ford has been trumpeting its Escape Hybrid for years, and only now is it reaching the market after a couple of delays. Perhaps GM wanted to avoid making promises it couldn't keep.

But the more likely reason is that the hybrid GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado are "mild" hybrids, whereas a vehicle like the Toyota Prius is a true hybrid.

What's the difference? A true hybrid operates partly on a gasoline engine, partly on an electric motor. The Prius has a 76-horsepower gasoline engine, and a 50-killowatt electric motor, which work together to power the car. The more the electric motor helps the gasoline engine, the less gas the engine has to use. The electric motor helps the car move.

With a mild hybrid such as the GMC Sierra test truck, it doesn't. At a stoplight, the gasoline engine -- the regular 5.3-liter V-8 -- turns off, and a big 45-volt battery pack hidden beneath the truck's rear seat takes over, powering the radio, the electric power steering and the air conditioning (though it won't generate cold air, it will blow the remaining cool air out the vents). The fuel savings you get with a mild hybrid, then, are limited to how much time you spend stopped in traffic. When you take your foot off the brake, the gas engine restarts, and you're on your way.

With a true hybrid or a mild hybrid, the battery pack takes over when the vehicle is stopped, saving gas. But with a true hybrid, the batteries also power an electric motor that helps the gas engine propel the vehicle, which saves fuel. As you'd expect, a true hybrid saves more gas than a mild hybrid. But a true hybrid is also more complicated and expensive to build.

GM went with the mild hybrid for its pickup trucks because it could get them to market quicker and cheaper. The hybrid system adds only about $1,500 to the price of a regular pickup. It doesn't add to highway mileage -- both the hybrid and regular pickups are EPA-rated at 20 miles per gallon -- but it does help with city fuel mileage. The hybrid pickup is rated at 18 mpg, and the regular pickup, 16 mpg. The EPA says the Prius can get 60 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway. GM's improvement of 2 mpg in the city hasn't wowed the media.

Which is why GM is giving the hybrid pickups' fuel-saving ability second billing. The top selling point, GM figures, is the hybrid's capability. That 42-amp battery pack under the back seat has two 110-volt electrical plug-ins on it, and there are two more at the rear of the truck's bed. Instead of a regular starter motor and alternator, the hybrid pickups have an electric motor under the hood that -- while it can't actually make the truck move -- can generate up to 14,000 watts of continuous electrical power.

So how well does it work?

Quite well, though the sensation of having the big V-8 engine stop and start at every traffic light is odd at first. (With the little Prius four-cylinder, you barely notice it.) Everything -- steering, brakes, stereo -- continues to work normally. Punch the "tow/haul" button on the shift lever, and the engine restarts, and stays running, should you want it to. In the winter, an electric pump will circulate warm radiator fluid through the heater core, so you'll have heat even with the engine off.

The GMC Sierra hybrid towed a 5,000-pound trailer effortlessly, and performed every other function we asked. As for fuel mileage -- a 50-mile city test loop produced 18.3 mpg. Overall mileage, with a combination of city, highway and towing, gave us 15.3 mpg. Not bad, but not headline material.

Full Article Here (Registration Required)

[ByTheLake]

I like the GM 'partial hybrid' approach, especially with a pickup truck. Those power outlets would be perfectly usable.

Where I live, I'm often in a field or on a trail, far from any electric power source. I've hauled portable generators to some sites in the past to get some work done. The outlets in the hybrid truck would be great. I know a lot of builders that would like this feature in a truck, especially with only a $1500 markup.

It will be interesting when these get to the full market, nation-wide. Hopefully it becomes a popular configuration.

[goblue1999]

The press should go ahead and adopt the terminology that the entire auto industry is using "mild hybrid" and "strong hybrid"

[pkd87]

can't wait till hybrids become available on other gm vehicles.

[Ming]

Originally posted by pkd87@Sep 1 2004, 08:25 AM
can't wait till hybrids become available on other gm vehicles.

Perhaps this is why GM is quietly marketing them. GM has said it will "gauge the interest in hybrids" by these trucks.

Perhaps if they avoid mainstream advertising altogether, they can fulfill their own prophecy and report that the vehicles never caught on --- just wait 10 more years for a Hydrogen vehicle!

[gmwsag]

First of all, Toyota, and Honda are ahead of the game---once again in this one.

• The EPA numbers aren't revolutionary
• No big change, not 'full' hybrids
• No marketing strategy, no game plan= no sales

These are the three things GM is missing out on---but, hey: it is another failure from General Motors. What can we do about it????

[Ming]

The disappointing thing about this is that these "mild hybrid" pickups are pretty cool.

Yet the advertising budget is about the same size as the 2005 Astro & Blazer.

I wish we knew the reasons behind this odd, almost EV-1 like strategy.

[thehemi]

Do these trucks come with super heavy-duty starters? :P

And I always thought that people said the time when your
car makes the most pollution is when it startsup. Not true?
If so, it seems odd to want to stop/start all the time.

[AMcA]

Here's my question: does it do any regenerative braking? It's my understanding that's where the bulk of the full hybrid's efficiency gains come from. If GM's blowing that off, well, it hardly seems worth the effort, except maybe for an urban dweller.

[Dumb_Ass_2003]

They praise the outrageously expensive Prius hybrid for getting much better mileage, then they blast the mildy expensive hybrid version of the Sierra for not getting as much of an increase as other hybrids

And who the hell cares if it's not a 'full' hybrid. If you can afford it and it offers reasonable gains in mileage then GM has done their job. Toyota could offer a $50,000 Tundra that got 30/40 MPG and they'd be praised to no end, even though the average truck buyer couldn't afford it.

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by AMcA@Sep 2 2004, 04:47 AM
Here's my question: does it do any regenerative braking? It's my understanding that's where the bulk of the full hybrid's efficiency gains come from. If GM's blowing that off, well, it hardly seems worth the effort, except maybe for an urban dweller.

Yes, there is some regenerative braking with the hybrid.

See the Hybrid Highlights section

http://media.gm.com/division/2005_prodinfo...rado/index.html

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by thehemi@Sep 2 2004, 03:47 AM
Do these trucks come with super heavy-duty starters? :P

And I always thought that people said the time when your
car makes the most pollution is when it startsup. Not true?
If so, it seems odd to want to stop/start all the time.

The hybrid has a special 14 kw starter-generator placed between the engine and transmission to handle the starting, so it should be up to the task of all the restarts the hybrid will need.

I think most of the pollution from cars today happens the first minute after cold starts, before the catalytic converters are warm. When the hybrids shut off their engines at stops lights and such, they won't be off long enough for the converters to cool down, and the starters are so powerful that the start will happen instantaneously.

Check out the Hybrid Highlights section here.

http://media.gm.com/division/2005_prodinfo...rado/index.html

[former vw owner]

Originally posted by MelvinJ+Sep 2 2004, 12:47 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MelvinJ @ Sep 2 2004, 12:47 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-AMcA@Sep 2 2004, 04:47 AM
Here's my question: does it do any regenerative braking?&nbsp; It's my understanding that's where the bulk of the full hybrid's efficiency gains come from.&nbsp; If GM's blowing that off, well, it hardly seems worth the effort, except maybe for an urban dweller.

Yes, there is some regenerative braking with the hybrid.

See the Hybrid Highlights section

http://media.gm.com/division/2005_prodinfo...rado/index.html [/b][/quote]
CORRECTION!

There is NO regenerative braking whatsoever in the GM mild hybrids.

All they do is shut off the engine at stops and restart when the brake is released. The only savings comes from less idling time.

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by former vw owner+Sep 2 2004, 03:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (former vw owner @ Sep 2 2004, 03:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Yes, there is some regenerative braking with the hybrid.

See the Hybrid Highlights section

http://media.gm.com/division/2005_prodinfo...rado/index.html

CORRECTION!

There is NO regenerative braking whatsoever in the GM mild hybrids.

All they do is shut off the engine at stops and restart when the brake is released. The only savings comes from less idling time. [/b][/quote]
So is this part of GM's press release a blatant lie?

The starter generator provides fast, quiet starting power and allows automatic engine stops/starts to conserve fuel. It also smoothes out any driveline surges; generates electrical current to charge the batteries and run auxiliary power outlets; and provides coast-down regenerative braking, as an aid to fuel economy.

I'm curious where you heard otherwise.

[akumaknight]

what is the cityMPG in a Toyota Tundra? or a Nissan Titan? 18MPG from a full size truck in the city seems preaty good to me. Thats about what my LeSabre Gets (and its a 3800 with a 4t60-E 4speed auto)