Gas prices might be double what they were a few years ago, but that doesn’t seem to be putting much of a dent in pickup sales – even in the au courant surroundings of some of Amerca’s snazziest cities. The GMC Sierra Hybrid fits squarely into the genre as a mildly more eco-friendly hauler.

Earlier this year, we sampled a four-wheel-drive version of this package, but now we’re on the decidely less off-road-ready terrain of South Florida in a more pedestrian two-wheeler.

Look at it this way: It’s like heading to your local Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet for a 12-piece bucket, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits and Coleslaw, and then asking for a Diet Coke to wash it all down with. Does it make sense? Let’s take a look.

What is it?
General Motors’ GMC division chose a standard-appearing Sierra Crew Cab as the basis for this out-of-the-ordinary hauling vehicle. The General is claiming up to a 40 percent improvement in around-city driving, and a 25 percent increase in mileage overall. The only way you would know of its electric roots is the chrome and green badging on the front fenders and the starting and stopping of the gas engine at stops and low speeds.

What’s it up against?
The Sierra competes against family in this case by going head to head with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid. What’s your flavor? GMC or the Bowtie Brigade?

Dodge says a hybrid version of its popular Ram is forthcoming, but for now you’ll have to stick with the General.

Any breakthroughs?
With the exception of stuffing the Hybrid powerplant inside a full sized GM pickup truck, we’d have to say no. But it is a neat trick to keep all movement under 30 mph to the electric motor. Once that speed is exceeded, the 6.0-liter V8 gas engine takes over. The two-wheel-drive motive power, combined with the 26-gallon fuel tank could see a range of over 500 miles per tank full.

How does it look?
Imagine a full-sized crew cab-equipped GM pick-em-up truck with the big full-load-of-testosterone GMC grille. Now flare out the wheel wells, add lots of chrome around lower bumper, and then make sure you drop the alloy wheels into the chrome plating vat for good measure. There you have it, folks!

Blacked out privacy glass helps keep prying eyes out of the rear of the cab. The cargo box is a standard-sized affair: 5’9” long, and just over five feet wide, which is good enough for hauling more than 53-cubic feet of cargo.

And on the inside?
Take your pick, it’s a five or six-seater depending on whether you need cupholders and a massive armrest in between you and the passenger. Looking entirely like a standard issue Sierra pickup, the only hints that you were in a hybrid would be the badging on the tachometer and the occasional on and off of the gasoline engine. That’s if you could hear it at all, for GM’s NVH engineers have designed an extremely quiet cabin. Our tester was upholstered in the fabric color of light titanium, a contrast to the bucket seat, leather-wrapped interior on the four-wheel-drive version we sampled earlier.

The dashboard is pickup moderne, which looks rather stylized and current. A six-gauge binnacle features speedometer, tachometer, fuel, water and oil temperature gauges in addition to an economy gauge with a needle that shows optimal driving habits, and can be an effective aid in behavior modification. We found ourselves watching it in the corner of our eye. On the passenger side is a two-stage glove box with room for the owners manuals and perhaps an actual set of work gloves, among other things. With the seating arrangement as it is with a 40-20-40 front bench seat, the gear selector is column-mounted and offers low and high gearing changes by a stalk-mounted toggle switch.

Rear-seat legroom is exceptional. We wish the seatbacks could recline a bit and then we would be totally happy with its arrangement. On the other hand, the seat bottoms, which would otherwise lift for added storage space are fixed in this case because of the location of the underseat battery array.

But does it go?
Let’s put it this way—Stomp on the loud pedal and you can almost light the tires. But at that point you can dismiss any possible gas savings. The Hybrid system in the Sierra is comprised of GM’s Electrically Variable Transmission, an array of nickel-metal hydride batteries that provide up to 300-volts and the standard 6.0-liter V8 gasoline engine. That engine uses the active-fuel management system that shuts down half the cylinders in an effort to gain on fuel economy, and the late intake valve-closing mode similar in style to the Atkinson-cycle engine Toyota uses in their hybrid vehicles. By the numbers, the system produces 332 horsepower and 367 lb-ft. of torque.

As we stated before, the electric motor-generator holds sway until the truck gets over 30 mph. From that point, you are running gas and electric regeneratively and also have the cylinder shut-down mode that comes into play once the engine hits a stable cruising speed. At other times, the system will disengage the electric motors, which switches the EVT over to a conventional automatic tranny. According to the General, this is sometimes a more efficient mode for heavy hauling. From that point, the electric motors can generate additional torque.

EPA estimates for the 2WD are 21 mpg city and 22 mpg highway, about what we saw. Not too shabby for a truck weighing 5,641 lbs.

The ride is beyond truck quiet. It is car quiet. Independent coil-overs in front, and a two-stage leaf spring setup in back keep the Sierra well-sprung. But we noticed several quirks along the way that must be inherent in truckdom. When nailing the brakes with an empty cargo bed, the inertia rushes forward. With no weight in the rear, and a natural 59/41 weight bias, there’s the feeling that the rear wheels are just gliding over the road surface. Conversely, under heavy acceleration there’s lots of wheel hop until the truck settles and the rear tires lock up. The four-wheel-drive model, with its automatic mode, helps alleviate the situation.

Why you would buy it:
You are the president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, (the cross-branding possibilities are endless) and need to haul around a half-ton of manure or compost to the local organic farmer’s market, all the while maintaining your “green” credentials.

Why you wouldn’t:
Because you think real trucks don’t run on a battery. Give me a fossil-fuel-burning vehicle. Grrrrrrrr!

Leftlane’s bottom line:
From our brief time in this four-by-two GMC Sierra Hybrid, we were constantly reminded that this is not an everyday pickup truck. From the constant glancing through the corner of my eye at the hybrid energy gauge to the knowledge that a roundtrip between two of our favorite destinations used to take nearly 5/8 of a tank of gas in a standard Sierra did the same in under a half a tank, it’s clear GM might be on to something here.

Then again, two-wheel-drive variants of the Sierra and Silverado with the 5.3-liter engine are newly rated at 22 mpg on the highway for 2010, further negating some of the Sierra Hybrid’s advantages.

2009 GMC Sierra Hybrid 2WD Crew Cab base price, $38,390. As tested, $39,640.
Power driver’s seat, $275; Destination, $975.

Words and photos by Mark Elias.

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