“So welcome, Toyota, to the rear-wheel drive hybrid club,� wrote Stephens. “We’re glad you’ve joined us.�

Only difference with Toyota is they will still be around in a couple of years making their hybrids. lol

GM needs SOMETHING to be proud of.

Silverado “Hybrid”… Read this month’s Motor Trend, it talks about said “Hybrid”. It’s not a Hybrid, it’s a truck with a beefed up alternator. Toyota is the first.

My feelings exactly Nick. For GM to even cosider the technology used in the Siverado/Sierra a hybrid in the same sense as Toyota’s technology is a joke. I’d even consider it false advertising.

However, it is cool that you can plug into the truck just like a generator.

Such overwhelming audacity from GM towards a company that actually innovates. I can’t believe GM would have the nerve to compare their “hybrid” system to Toyota’s HSD. GM is a joke and they’ll be gone in 5 years.

“GM is a joke and they’ll be gone in 5 years.” 5 years, eh? Now that’s a joke.

Toyota hybrid systems are a fad and will wear thin soon. They still use gas and use a LOT of resourses developing AND recycling the batteries….so it looks like there should be a better party to join than the terribly overrated ‘hybrid party’

“They still use gas” – Um from my understanding a hybrid system is one that uses gas and electric. If it was a nonhybrid it would use gas or electric or some other form of energy. As for calling them a fad I don’t know about that I think it’s more of a side project that they are using to placate consumers while they are developing better technologies such as hydrogen, and fuel-cell fuel.

As for GM they are just trying to make themselves look good. Anything to make more than $10 billion in loss look a little better.

casey, why dont’ you take a look at real history before making such a stupid comment. I guarantee you that throughout history General Motors has innovated the automobile in more ways than any other manufacturer on the planet. Hands down. And Toyota has been very successful of copying other manufacturers innovations.

Why’s everyone gotta be so mean? These are only opinions.

GM is correct. They had their RWD hybrid system out first. Toyota has their version of hybrids. Ford has a modified version of Toyota’s system. Honda’s system is similar to GM’s system. And GM’s 2-mode system is and will be shared by Daimler-Chrysler (GM worked on hybrid systems for trucks, and Mercedes worked on hybrid systems for luxury cars… and both will be shared.)

Toyota HSD system is expensive, and overrated. The efficiencies are really based on the gas engine itself, which is already pretty efficient in the first place. The Highlander’s and RX400h’s EPA numbers are far lower than estimated, and they’re not selling as expected.

GM’s system will have up to a 25% increase with a nominal price increase of about $1800… about 1/3rd the cost of the Toyota system, with far less complexity.

There are advantages to both systems, obviously.
And on a side note… GM’s Hybrid-Diesel buses are on the road in quite a few American cities. I wouldn’t count the General out just yet.

Could have sworn that the press release said RWD hybrin SEDAN….must be just my eyes…
In anycase, it is pretty audacious to call the Silverados/Sierras TRUE hybrids

That is truly laughable, to call the GM’s idle only electric power source a hybrid. It doesn’t power anything other than a few outlets and keeps the elctronics going until the engine starts up again to actually drive the powertrain. The electric does nothing to suplement the gas engine or to launch the vehicle.
Kudos to them for developing a system that turns off the engine while the truck is sitting still, but it is not a hybrid in the true sense of the word.

Brian-
How about some examples in recent history? Let’s see…
Toyota:
1) The popularization of the hybrid powertrain
2) The invention of the car-based SUV segment (RAV4/RX)
3) A successful youth-oriented brand in Scion
4) A high quality, top selling luxury marque in Lexus
5) Efficient production processes that become cheaper with each successive generation of product
6) Creation of American jobs as opposed to the elimination of them

GM:
1) Four-wheel steering (flop)
2) Big badges on Cadillacs (tacky)
3) Employee pricing

You’re right Brian, GM is clearly an innovator.

GM is sooooooo jealous. I’ll be the first one laughing if they go bankrupt and die because of their stuck-up, American-flag-waving arrogance. If they weren’t so stupid, they would save themselves by changing their attitude about the Japanese competition. They never compare their cars to Ford or Chrysler or any Euro brands, only the Japanese, because they hate the Japanese.

If I turn off my engine manually at the stop light, can I call my car a “Hybrid?”

If I put my car in NEUTRAL while not moving, so I could save a few drops of fuel, can I call my car a “Hybrid?”

Casey – how about some more homework on GM’s side? And not just recent history either?

GM:

1909 – Offers the world’s first limousine.
1912 – Cadillac offers the Delco Electric Self-Starter; becomes the first and only company to win the Dewar Trophy twice. The Delco system was a breakthrough and was the forerunner of the automobile electrical system as we know it today. You could now start a car with a push of a button instead of having to wind that heavy crank.
1922 – Innovated the windshield wiper and rearview mirror
1924 – Pioneered fast-drying Duco lacquer paints offering 500 colours – most competitors only offered black.
1934 – Introduces the world’s first independent front suspension
1940 – Introduces the first fully automatic transmission – the Hydra-matic
1949 – Introduced the world’s first pillarless two-door hard top body style, the Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
1965 – Introduces tilt/telescopic steering wheels.
1969 – Cadillac introduces the industry’s first closed cooling system, making overheated engines a thing of the past.
1971 – Introduces “Track Master”, an advanced, computerized rear-wheel skid-control braking system (which led to the development of ABS later)
1974 – Pioneered the air bag.
1975 – First manufacturer to use electronic fuel injection and introduces the catalytic converter.
1992 – Introduces the first 32-valve V8 engine.

Dont be so quick to say GM is no innovator.

But, You’re saying GM hasn’t invented anything after 1992? I guess GM deserves a Nobel prize or some sort of life-time achievement award; but GM has retired.

Toyota might have misspoke, but GM did not seem to market hybrid systems to the masses. They might have developed those hybrid systems in the labs, but how about putting them to use for the mass public? Who were they selling those hybrids to? Just government entities? Why do I not see GM hybrids on the road?

GM did market the hybrid trucks, and they’re for sale in dealers’ lots right now. They also developed displacement on demand and are producing tons of vehicles with E85….right now if they could make a RWD hybrid E85 capable….that’d be the key

GM’s made hybrid busses – with RWD – for several years now.

Toyota’s highly efficient production techniques have enabled the cost of the latest Toyota Camry engine to drop from $2000/per to $1000!!! American companies like GM, who admittedly WERE innovaters[until 1992], can only salivate at numbers like that.

Business is about the long-run AND about constant innovation – the second you cease moving forward, you are moving backword. And while GM can find and shape/bend facts to sound great on a marketing level, such as the quote of this article “welcome to the club Toyota” in the end SUBSTANCE is what counts and anyone with half a brain that takes the time to properly analyze the facts will conclude that Toyota has become a significant force and innovator while GM spends even more time on resolving structural issues than improving car quality and design.

Their quote is nothing more than a lame cheapshot that legally it can justify but not much beyond that…equivalent to Bush-speak which is all about inventing obscure self-justifying statements that serve no purpose other than to deflect current criticism…

One poster commented that hybrid technology is used to placate consumers until fuel cells arrive. This is false information. Most people talk about fuel cells like they think they know what they are.

A fuel cell utilizes hydrogen with oxygen in atmospher to form water and electricity. The electricity is then used to power an electric motor. Thus, the fuel cell vehicle is an electric car except the battery is replaced w/ fuel cells.

The hybrid car is on the continuum from the conventional internal combustion powered car to the fuel cell. By widely adopting and investing in hybrid technology, automakers will pave the way towards making fuel cell vehicles a reality. The mass production of hybrid cars means that manufacturing lines and supply/demand will be better tailored to producing fuel cell cars.

And here’s another kicker:
The reverse process of hydrolysis is highly inefficient and expensive. Toyota’s fuel cell hybrid vehicles will adapt a battery much like today’s hybrids to capture regenerative energy and improve performance and fuel economy.

“In an Associated Press interview, Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said: ‘I think everything will be a hybrid, eventually. It will either be a gas hybrid, a diesel hybrid, or a fuel-cell hybrid’ (Berman).�