A Hybrid Double Double
Silverado Hybrid V8 
AEman sees both good news and bad news coming out of Detroit's latest hybrid sales news. The good news is that the number of hybrid cars (and now light trucks) is doubling every year. It did in 2004, it's going to happen again in 2005, and it looks like it's going to keep happening.
The bad news is that part of that rapid increase is going to come in categories that have almost nothing to do with vehicle efficiency. For instance, the behemoth pictured above, even with a hybrid engine, gets less than 20 mpg. One could argue that that's better than the 14 or 15 it might get with a conventional gasoline engine. Pragmatic AEman know this is, percentage-wise, a substantial gain, especially when large pickups like this are used as trucks. You know, to haul large chunks of heavy stuff. But it's the other and more popular use, pickup as general purpose passenger car that pisses him off.
Detroit is pitching this as having your cake and eating it too: all the braun of a monster truck, with an environmentally friendly engine that sips gas. Sips gas AEman's ass.
posted by Andy Bochman at 9:29 PM
 
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