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To get the most benefit out of the hybrid drivetrain, GM fitted the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid with a streamlined aluminum hood. The intake ducts are larger to keep everything cool underneath.
The Tahoe and Yukon Hybrids get a specialized Vortec V8 gas engine with a 12-to-1 compression ratio.
Some of the snazziest wheels we've ever seen on a GM product and they're lightweight to boot. The tires are the low rolling resistance variety.
Except for the metallic trim in place of faux wood accents, the Tahoe Hybrid looks like any other Tahoe on the inside.

2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid & GMC Yukon Hybrid

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What Is It?
2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid & GMC Yukon Hybrid

What's Special About It?
Hybrids are fuel-efficient, sometimes even fast, but rugged enough to take on an off-road trail? Not with all those expensive batteries onboard.

General Motors plans to destroy this myth sometime in 2007 when the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and GMC Yukon Hybrid come to market. They may be part-electric, but these are real SUVs. You can even get them with four-wheel drive and a low-range transfer case. Not your thing? No problem, order up eight-passenger seating and two-wheel drive. "Basically," says Mark LaNeve, VP of sales, service and marketing for GM North America, "you can get them any way you want."

Originally developed for GM's mass-transit buses, the Tahoe/Yukon "two-mode" hybrid system pairs two electric motors with one of GM's Vortec V8 engines. Company officials didn't want to tell us the V8's displacement, but they did say the engine's compression ratio is up from 9.9-to-1 to 12-to-1.

The first of the hybrid system's two modes covers low-speed, light-duty driving, and allows for electric propulsion only, gas engine propulsion only, or any combination of the two.

The second mode comes into play during high-speed driving or when pulling heavy loads. In this mode, the gas engine is almost always active with the electric motor providing assist when necessary. To save fuel, the V8 employs cylinder deactivation (GM's Active Fuel Management), variable camshaft phasing and late intake valve closure when operating in this mode. An onboard computer allows for synchronous shifts between modes with no interruption in power.

GM calls the Tahoe/Yukon Hybrid's transmission an electronically variable transmission, which has no fixed gear ratios as in a conventional automatic, nor any belts and pulleys as in a CVT. GM says this hybrid system promises to improve fuel economy 25 percent. That means a Tahoe Hybrid would average about 22.7 mpg.

What's Edmunds' Take?
Almost 23 mpg in a vehicle that seats eight and can tow up to 6,000 pounds? Hybrid technology may well save big SUVs from extinction. — Erin Riches