GM News: GM Quietly Kills Off Next-Gen Hybrid Pickups, SUVs To Follow?

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

December 18, 2012

GM's full-size hybrid pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid have offered the best fuel economy in the class since being introduced in 2009. However, they haven't been a sales success as GM had expected. Last year, GM sold 3,114 Hybrid trucks and SUVs, from a high of 8,797 vehicles in 2009.

Last week at the press introduction of the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, GM North America President Mark Reuss told GreenCarReports that a hybrid model isn't in the cards.

“In this truck we decided to go with the EcoTec3 technology, with the V-6 and the two V-8s, and we think that's the best solution for our customers. So with this next generation it will not be a hybrid,” said Reuss.

This response mostly confirms earlier reports, the first being from GMInsideNews.com back in August that cited information from sources that GM would be killing off its hybrid trucks and SUVs.

When asked about what the future holds for the hybrid system in SUVs, Reuss declined to comment.

Source: GreenCarReports.com

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

This is a sad statement as GM failed to Market these hybrids. They are best in class fuel economy and the Hybrid SUV's were awesome. Costs were high due to the small amount made. If they had actually marketed them properly and built them in proper quantity, more would have bought them at a reasonable price.

This makes me wonder how much they were paid by the Oil Companies to NOT make a Hybrid truck/suv. These are desired and wanted auto's they just need to be properly sold and marketed. I can see Toyota doing this and having a run away sales success.

This tends to not forecast well for what GM might do to the VOLT if the VOLT and ELR do not sell well after 3-4 years.

So damned focus on instant profits that they cannot seem to see long term on how they need to spread this technology across more auto's.

[Guest regfootball]

Probably better to put those resources into more volt development and similar models. For example, a volt crossover would be nice.

[BigPontiac]

They'll leave electrified trucks/SUVs to Bob Lutz: http://www.viamotors.com/news/press-releases/bob-lutz-joins-via-motors/

[ocnblu]

What a sad day, indeed.

[Drew Dowdell]

What a sad day, indeed.

yes... now GM is likely to be at the back of the pack in fuel economy.

[Robert Hall]

For mileage, they need to offer a range of diesels for the full size trucks and SUVs.

[G. David Felt]

For mileage, they need to offer a range of diesels for the full size trucks and SUVs.

Yes this is where they need to bring in the 2.8L V6 and the 4.8L V8 duramax engines.

[daves87rs]

Never saw the point of them anyways.....want to save gas after buying an suv? Buy a beater car....

[ocnblu]

What a sad day, indeed.

yes... now GM is likely to be at the back of the pack in fuel economy.

Why you mad?

[yougojay]

These Hybrid Silverado trucks have a 40,000 base price - the 1500 Silverado has a 23,000 base price. To me, it's a no-brainer... the Vortec V6 is rated at 15 & 20 mpg, while the hybrid is 20 & 23 mpg.....OH, and 17,000 more in price. Plus all the extra techie stuff on the hybrid that will most likely fail after years of use..

WAY too expensive & most likely, too expensive to keep for the long term...especially after the warranty is over.

[hyperv6]

This was not a good move from the start. Many complain about the high price of the Volt when these trucks were way more expensive vs the regular one. Yes they did get more MPG but not much and when something goes wrong how much more expensive will they be to repair.

Also the truck market is not where you are going to get many tree huggers or people worried about MPG.

The key to the truck market is to get the best MPG while keeping the trucks simple and not much more expensive than they already are.

You can sell the Volt to a lot of people who are trying to save the world a tree at a time but I really do not see them buying many trucks or Tahoes.

Smaller more efficent powerful engines, Diesels if they goverment stops making it more difficult to sell, and smaller trucks like the Colorado are going to be the keys to the half ton market in the future.

Most truck owners are not in to BS and science experiments. The money wasted here would be better spent on the Spark electric and the Volts next two generations. Once they improve those and find a way to cut cost they may get way with a Volt like driveline later on but not now.

[PurdueGuy]

I still think they lost something special they had with the first generation of hybrid pickups - generator function. They had 3-prong outlets in the bed, and could be used as an emergency or construction site generator. That's a lot of extra utility to make the extra cost worthwhile. The first gen didn't get as much of a fuel economy bump, but it also didn't carry as much of a price bump. Perhaps if this function were available on the 2-mode, it'd be an easier sell.

[G. David Felt]

I still think they lost something special they had with the first generation of hybrid pickups - generator function. They had 3-prong outlets in the bed, and could be used as an emergency or construction site generator. That's a lot of extra utility to make the extra cost worthwhile. The first gen didn't get as much of a fuel economy bump, but it also didn't carry as much of a price bump. Perhaps if this function were available on the 2-mode, it'd be an easier sell.

Exactly, GM missed the boat on properly marketing this to the construction industry as the Electrical prongs in the bed took nothing away from carrying rock, dirt, etc but gave a ton of usefulness to allowing construction on site where no power existed yet.

Having this as a option package or building a dedicated work truck that gave more than the single electrical outlet. There are far better ways to market a hybrid truck with the generator feature that would appeal to buyers.

GM Failed at marketing the Hybrid full size Trucks and SUV's. Executives are still looking for instant profits and instant gratification rather than long term of what these platforms bring in long term benefits.

Try and find a hybrid truck or SUV in the used car lot, if you do your research, you will find these are some of the longest owned vehicles as buyers do not want to give up the gains they got with these 4x4 hybrids as 22mpg is far better than the 15mpg the gas only versions get.

[hyperv6]

I really get the feeling there were some at GM that loved the concept and many more others that did not. Once those who loved it left it went on the march to being gone.

[ponchoman49]

I sure hope the new 4.3 V6 delivers. If it doesn't get at least 24-25 highway MPG in the RWD trucks then it will be a fail compared to the 18/25 Ram 3.6/8 speed!

[loki]

didn't dwight do a estimate for an updated 4.3L?

[loki]

just doing some ratio power figures, even if the 6.2L hits 400hp (hopefully more like 420) the 4.3 should hit 300hp with 300lbft also, if not be close..

....why can't this be the "hybrid version" with an updated 2-mode? --only kinda serious about this....