First Drive Review: 2009 GMC Sierra 1500 Two-Mode Hybrid - PickupTrucks.com
If we apply that figure just to pickups, a truck averaging 17 mpg today would have to average just over 22 mpg seven years from now. There’s only one full-size truck that already comes close to hitting that mark in combined city and highway driving: The GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid, along with its twin, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid. In many ways, the Sierra Hybrid represents the best and worst of what’s likely to come for pickup truck buyers. We drove the Sierra Hybrid around San Antonio to find out how fuel-thrifty it is in urban driving conditions. City driving is also where GM’s 6. 0-liter V-8 hybrid powertrain originated, efficiently powering the wheels of big diesel-electric buses before the system was shrunk and repurposed for GM’s full-size trucks. The Sierra Hybrid uses two 60kW (81 horsepower) electric motors that can power the truck on their own up to about 25 mph, depending on driving conditions. The Sierra's electrically variable transmission provides an almost infinite range of gears, but it also has four fixed gears, like a. Source: news.pickuptrucks.com
