As someone who has not driven a car with fewer than 8 cylinders in the past 10yrs as a primary vehicle… I definitely like my displacement BUT do appreciate the efficiency of some of the smaller engines. I do not understand why there has not been a bigger push to hybridize more big vehicles? I understand we can all say we don’t like regulation telling us what to do or control our buying habits but where is the common sense engineering?
I think I’ve said this before that these big SUVs would be perfect candidates for big hybrid power trains. Increase power and efficiency. Yes, complications and potentially price but it can’t be that much more, ford and Toyota both by hybrid systems in their trucks. I bet another generation of research will have the trucks with mid-20s on MPG.
Oil/fuel prices aren’t high enough yet to drive consumer purchasing decisions yet, I guess?
I believe in free choice on business and personal purchase but there is a level of social responsibility businesses should have to shape the world they operate in… sorry… I’m a dreamer of a utopia that may not exist lol
in a way I blame gm for this. they came to market to early with the hybrid tahoe in 08 before the tech was ready. the battery was a total failure. everything else was fine, but the only stable battery tech to chose from was Toyota prius.
it was very high priced for its time and didn't show the results needed. had they waited a few years and put the volt battery tech in it. it could have gotten 25+ in the city, lasted forever and not added as much weight.
as it was with a hybrid battery that had about as much useful storage as a large 12v car battery. they sitll got 21npg out of it in soccer mom hell city driving without giving up much in the way of being a truck. like tow rating and 4wd. some do say they tired to be all things to everyone and ended up doing no one thing great ha.
in today's world, I'm convinced they could build one using the turbo 4cyl in the full sized trucks, which makes great power, today's battery tech. 30mpg city and 500lbs of tq would be a sweet spot they could hit. sadly it will never happen. they can't even make a V8 that doesn't look up these days.
engineering has fallen off the cliff on everything from cars/trucks, industrial equivalent all the way to air planes. Boeing is so bad at design and making planes at this point. the big 3 ceo's are willing to bank roll a 3 manufacter that could bring a decent narrow body to the market.
might just be chasing profit margin over brain power, but whatever it is everyone new feels like a pile of crap right now. it's kinda sad and scares they hell out of me that people think we can build and maintain nuclear plants all over the country. be lucky we we can even build them to work, definitely won't maintain them and they will all be a ticking time bomb in 30 years that we can't take off line to rebuild because we won't have the money.
