ELECTRIFIED: Trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles are starting to appear with electric motors.
Image: Flickr/ajmexico
Passenger cars have been generating much of the buzz around electrified transportation, but automakers are changing that with a suite of new electrified trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles that could soon hit the market.
"Whether it's an advanced drive vehicle of any sort -- a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid or an electric vehicle (EV) -- the manufacturers are taking it seriously, and they understand it as a growing market," said Jeremy Acevedo, analyst at the automotive research website Edmunds.com. "I think it's something that's easy for consumers to get behind when they see their brand throwing out legitimate offerings into that segment," he said.
Automakers both big and small delivered last week at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit with the launch of several electrified products on larger platforms.
Via Motors, a company backed by former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, unveiled four extended-range electric work vehicles at NAIAS that it says can get more than 100 mpg in regular driving conditions. Like GM's Chevrolet Volt, Via's lineup of plug-in vehicles can travel about 40 miles in all-electric mode before switching to a hybrid setting, which improves fuel economy by 2 to 4 mpg over a gasoline alternative.
In Detroit, Via Motors launched a first-of-its-kind luxury SUV, cargo and passenger vans, and a high-performance pickup truck. The new XTRUX pickup features 4-wheel drive, immense torque and up to 800 horsepower, "and yet it has the fuel economy that makes a Prius look like a gas guzzler," said Lutz in a promotional video.
Verizon and Pacific Gas and Electric Corp. have already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance orders of Via's products, which are currently only available to consumers on lease. "Our vehicles were customer-driven," said David West, spokesman for Via Motors, in an interview. "These guys put down big money just to say if you build it, we will buy."
An electrifying rationale
There's been a charged debate in recent years on whether or not hybrid and electric passenger cars are succeeding in the marketplace due to their relatively low sales figures. So one might ask, why bring these powertrains to larger vehicles?
For Via, it is because they see greater economic and environmental paybacks coming from electrifying gas-hungry vehicles over smaller compact cars. "If you only save a little bit of gas, you only save a little bit of money and you only save a little bit of clean air," West said.
Electrification will also have greater benefits when applied to popular vehicles that don't require people to compromise on their wants and needs, he said. "A lot of people don't know it, but the No. 1 selling vehicle in the United States isn't a [Toyota] Camry or a small sedan; it's a pickup truck."
Catering to a North American audience, Volkswagen announced its CrossBlue concept SUV at NAIAS last week, which seeks to marry utility with efficiency. The diesel plug-in hybrid can run in all-electric mode for 14 miles with an estimated fuel economy of 89 mpg equivalent and can achieve 35 mpg as a hybrid, which a comparable gasoline-powered SUV would be hard-pressed to beat.
The driver can select to run on zero emissions mode at the press of a button, or else the CrossBlue will automatically shift between hybrid and all-electric modes during braking, acceleration and coasting to maximize fuel efficiency. The SUV also offers the safety and entertainment features a family would want with the space to seat seven.
"We see from predictions that one of the biggest growth areas in the market in the next five or six years are midsize crossover SUVs," said Mark Gillies, spokesman for Volkswagen of America. "And if you look at America as a market, people like bigger vehicles. It's as simple as that."
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10 Comments
Add CommentOne vehicle that will change a lot of people's minds on PHEV's is the upcoming 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It will be the first AWD SUV and it seats 7 and has a 38 mile range in EV mode and 35 mpg in hybrid mode which will make it the highest mileage SUV on the planet. It has over 325 ft lbs of torque from TWO electric motors in addition to the 4 cylinder gas engine. That's a lot of torque. There design also lends well to a future in which batteries are swapped out from the middle underside of the vehicle. That's where all the batteries for EV's should reside--safer and allows for the potential for swapping them out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt times I think the industry needs to get its head out of its butt. Of all the things listed here, they go above and beyond the horse power any rational hybrid buying person would want. They need to follow Toyota and build cheaper hybrid cars that are reasonably powerful, not excessively. If you want an 800 hp truck, maybe a hybrid is not the right avenue! As a comment on the article, where are the estimated costs? Who is going to spend $10,000 more for a car that will save $500/ year in fuel?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVehicles that travel in the air is desperately required soon. infrastructure is bankrupting governments . The great destruction is coming. The Georgia stonehenge has it written on the stones. There is no way surface transport can make it in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMuch of the capabilities of SUVs and trucks are not used by drivers. While I'm biking down the road, the overwhelming majority of the SUVs and trucks I see look like they have NEVER been off-road and there is only one person in the car. In addition, hardly anybody is hauling anywhere near the full capacity of stuff you can put in these vehicles, so all that cargo room that people drool over goes to waste most of the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you haul a lot of stuff and/or people most of the time, get a truck / SUV / minivan or whatever. If not, consider buying a car that can provide for 99% or more of your needs and rent a bigger vehicle when you need it. When you think of buying one of these bigger vehicles, ask yourself if you're really buying it out of necessity or just as a status symbol.
For me personally, when people drive by me in a much bigger and / or more polluting vehicle than they need, I have to breathe in extra pollution for no good reason.
You make a point of basic economics that many of us neglect to consider. Buying a tool based on its maximum possible use, especially an expensive one, only makes sense if that tool is used at its maximum capacity most of the time AND if there's no other, better and cheaper way to achieve our intended purposes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, to each his own, but getting a given car for social approval purposes is just giving other people too much power over us.
Completely agreed. Before owning my prius, I had a Ford Ranger, was small, got decent gas mileage (20 mpg) and i could occasionally haul 1 yard of mulch. But the small trucks are disappearing in this country. Ranger .. gone, Chevy S10... gone. I would have loved to have had the option to get a Ranger with a hybrid engine, bet I could have gotten 40 mpg with that too!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe radical right has gone nuts over the Volt. The Volt power train is a great concept and as battery cost comes down, it will provide a platform that GM can expand and prosper from while saving tons of fuel and emissions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article already shows VIA is using the idea in its Utility Vehicle offerings.
I have to agree with a lot of what you say. Many people drive SUVs, trucks, and vans who don't need them and never use all their capabilities. I myself, don't need my four wheel drive, high clearance, low center of gravity truck for most (8 months) of the year, but I can't afford an extra, better mileage vehicle to drive in the other eight months. I also can't stay in my home for up to four months of winter (plus gardening center trips in spring and summer). Therefore, you may see me driving my truck in the summer and conclude that I don't need it, but you would be wrong. You are probably right for the majority though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjust 50yrs too late !
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