The > Automobiles > MildHybrid Pickups: The 10% Solution

HE full-size Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid pickup offers few visual clues to its status as a flagship environmental product for General Motors. It is, frankly, a really big extended-cab truck, not the kind of vehicle that wins Greenpeace achievement awards. It looks like a gas guzzler even in bright green paint.

This is G.M.'s first hybrid - the GMC truck division offers a similar version of its Sierra pickup - and it wants the world to know. The 2004 version went virtually incognito, with hybrid labels only on the sides, but for 2005 there are additional badges on the dashboard and the tailgate. Still, no one will mistake this burly truck for a Toyota Prius.

A spokeswoman, Joanne Krell, said that the Silverado Hybrid did not qualify for the current federal income-tax deduction for hybrid vehicles, but that G.M. was hopeful that future tax incentives might apply.

G.M.'s argument, advanced in an ambitious advertising campaign, is that by putting a green spin on a very popular full-size truck, the company is "putting hybrid engines where they'll do the most good."

G.M. asserts that its hybrid offers a 10 percent gain in fuel economy over the standard Silverado, but the four-wheel-drive version's estimated rating of 17 miles per gallon in the city and 19 on the highway (compared with 15/19) isn't much to boast about. G.M. could have achieved more savings if it had built the hybrid around the 4.3-liter V-6 engine also offered in the Silverado, or had adapted its own "displacement on demand" system, which shuts down half the cylinders when full power is not needed. G.M. says the cylinder-deactivation technology "didn't fit with the electronic architecture" of the truck, though it is planned for hybrid versions of the next-generation Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon S.U.V.'s in 2007, and in 2008 on a full-hybrid Silverado.

"Buying this truck because you want to save fuel is like leaving the last bite of your bacon double cheeseburger because you're watching your weight," said Jim Kliesch, a research associate at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit group that advocates conservation, and author of "ACEEE's Green Book: The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks." "These vehicles still use a lot of gasoline."

But Mr. Kliesch added that the Silverado might make sense for consumers who really need full-size pickups. People buy big trucks for power, hauling ability and towing capacity, and the 295-horsepower Silverado makes few sacrifices, losing only 350 pounds of payload because of the weight of hybrid components.

On the highway, the Silverado has a split personality. When the engine shuts down at traffic lights (with a distinct shudder, compared with the relatively seamless transition in hybrids from Ford, Honda and Toyota), it feels like an economy car. But stomp on the gas pedal and it offers a good impression of a steroid-driven highway hauler. With big, cushy seats, it was fairly relaxing to drive on a trip from southern Connecticut to Cape Cod.

Available only with an extended cab and a short cargo box, but with either two- or four-wheel drive, the Silverado is so long I had trouble fitting it in a long-term space at the Newark airport (which is restricted to vehicles 18 feet or less). This truck is more than 19 feet long, and despite well-balanced power steering (which works even when the engine is off) it is a handful in tight parking lots.

A big selling point for the Silverado hybrid is that it, like the forthcoming Dodge Ram HEV, can be used as an on-site electric generator with its four 120-volt plugs, two beneath the back seat and two in the rear of the bed. Connie Scarpelli, a G.M. alternative fuels product manager for fleet and commercial products, says that with the truck idling the system can supply 20 amps of electricity to each of the four outlets. G.M. says the truck can provide power for three refrigerators simultaneously.

I didn't have three refrigerators, so I plugged in a coffee grinder and, after realizing that I had to really shove in the plug as well as push a button on the dash, got it humming along. In continuous mode, the outlets can supply power with the key removed and the truck locked.

It is an open question whether there are enough power-hungry contractors, eager-to-tow environmentalists or municipalities with green mandates to buy the G.M. and Dodge trucks in great numbers. The hybrid package adds ,500 to the bottom line, though ,000 comes back as a G.M. rebate. With such modest fuel savings, the numbers at the Web site www.fueleconomy.gov indicate that it would take more than three years to earn back the extra expense.

A spokeswoman, Joanne Krell, said that the Silverado Hybrid did not qualify for the current federal income-tax deduction for hybrid vehicles, but that G.M. was hopeful that future tax incentives might apply.

There's a lot of yin and yang in G.M.'s first hybrid. While it is one of the more fuel-efficient full-size pickups, that is not saying much. It is classified as a super-ultra-low-emissions vehicle, but it meets the older Sulev-1 standard, not the cleaner Sulev-2 rules. It will make a difference if sold in large numbers, but it is offered so far only in Alaska, California, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State (and G.M. is planning to build only 2,500 for 2005).

As a mild hybrid, the Silverado Hybrid cannot be directly compared with models from Ford, Honda and Toyota. For G.M., though, which has been content to let other companies take the lead in hybrid technology, it is a start.