By Frank Williams
November 15, 2007 -
The 2008 Green Car of the Year winner will be announced at the LA Auto Show in moments! [NB: that's an ironic spear.] The candidates were selected because they "stand out as exemplary models that forward environmental performance in meaningful and quantifiable ways" (per the LA Auto Show press release). They are: the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, Mazda Tribute Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and Saturn Aura Hybrid. Our man on-site, Alex Dykes, sent back photos of the draped winner, and we're going to tell you who won. If you play with the contrast, brightness, and midtones on this shot, you can make out a gold Chevy bowtie in the middle of a split grille. That narrows it to the Tahoe and Malibu hybrids. The size of the vehicle means it has to be…. the Tahoe! How they can give a tank like that a "Green Car of the Year" award totally escapes me.
[UPDATE: A GM rep at the show just confirmed Tahoe's win, saying "Yep, the Tahoe is the winner, we're really proud."]
Click here to download the full-size photo.
Subscribe to New Content Alerts17 Comments on “ News flash! Chevy Tahoe Hybrid is LA’s “Green Car of the Year” ”
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POWERED
November 15th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I love it! Ford is so down in the dumps, they can’t even get the Escape Hybrid on the list of nominees!!!
November 15th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
"Newness" is one factor they consider in selecting the nominees. The Mercury Mariner Hybrid (Escape clone) won the award for 2006. The Camry Hybrid won it last year.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I drive a car that easily beats the “Green Car of the Year” in fuel economy. It also consumed less than half the energy and resources of the Tahoe hybrid to make it in the first place. I guess I’m officially a hard-core environmentalist now. I’m so proud of myself. Woo-hoo. Time to party.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Also, later today they will announce that Los Angeles is the winner of green city of the year!
November 15th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
So a vehicle that’s as large as a Jr. High School football stadium is “Green”? Yeah … right… Meanwhile I’ll keep chugging along in my 14-year-old jalopy Civic that gets 40 mpg.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
As green as a LS600hL
November 15th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Dammit. I wish I could post a picture of an old green Pinto here.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
For the record, I couldn’t believe all the GM bashing on here. I thought “No way! GM do something right and we still flame them!”. So I went to the GM website to do a little research.
Apparently, I was wrong and you lot were right. The Chevy Tahoe hybrid can’t get more than 22mpg in optimal conditions (i.e 2WD and highway driving)! 22mpg?! Are GM adding these hybrids to improve fuel efficiency or to improve “green” credibility?! A Toyota Land Cruiser (Huge monster!) can get 22.2mpg on a 4 litre engine in mixed driving styles. No hybrid powertrain necessary!
I gave GM a chance and I backed the wrong horse!
P.S I also found out on the GM website that are having a “red tag” sale event! So get them while stocks last. Which will probably be about 100+ days at the last inventory count…….!
November 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
So that’s it. Hybrids have officially jumped the shark.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Now we know why GM is not profitable. They are spending huge amounts of money on bribes.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
KatiePuckrik :
A Toyota Land Cruiser (Huge monster!) can get 22.2mpg on a 4 litre engine in mixed driving styles. No hybrid powertrain necessary!
Maybe an old one, the current one (in the US) is rated for 13/18 MPG. They have the 5.7 V8 now.
http://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/specs.html
Oh and “can get” != EPA estimates.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
dwford :I love it! Ford is so down in the dumps, they can’t even get the Escape Hybrid on the list of nominees!!!— Mazda tribute? thats weird no wholly owned Japanese company is on that list unless you didn’t print them all.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Think about it people, if you need to tow while hauling people & stuff, (yes, there are people who actually use SUV’s to do this) these new hybrid SUV’s will provide the ‘green’ credentials. Going from 14 mpg up to 20+ mpg is quite an impressive improvement.
And Katie: “can get” means nothing with regards to mpg. I ‘can get’ 35 mpg in my Roadmaster if I’m on a flat highway going 45 mph. The Tahoe hybrid CAN get better than 22 mpg if you want it to. You can only get 13 mpg in your Land Cruiser, too, if you drive like Tony Stewart.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
“Think about it people, if you need to tow while hauling people & stuff, (yes, there are people who actually use SUV’s to do this) these new hybrid SUV’s will provide the ‘green’ credentials. Going from 14 mpg up to 20+ mpg is quite an impressive improvement.”
If you do all your towing in stop and go traffic in the city, that is.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I think Katie lives in an imperial (gallon) world.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I would think that the way this is going we will see a Kenworth as the green car of the year next!Give me a break!
November 21st, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hey Katie
The 2008 land cruiser is rated at 13 city 18 hwy. I guess the Truth is the Tahoe Hybrid gets 50% better mileage than the T Cruiser.