Official: GM Quietly Drops Hybrid Pickups; Are SUVs Next?

It is the 'per mile' part of the tax code that is at fault. Instead, allow specific deductions for:

• Actual depreciation when the vehicle sells.
• Actual maintenance costs including oil, coolant, e.t.c.
• Actual insurance.

But eliminate any tax deduction for fuel for new vehicles and the problem will be solved fairly quickly.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob how do you reminburse employees for their mileage? Do you need them to wait to sell their car to give them depreciation? Do they need to bring in receipts for maintenance. What percent is business of that repair? Its much more straight forward to pay a fixed amount. I can't imagine the paperwork. Many cases the money gets passed along to the employee.

My ex-gf and brother travel a great deal of work miles. The brother swapped to a camry hybrid, which gets much better mileage than the infiniti G he had before, but is not fun to drive. Hybrid works on his travels, often in traffic jams in chicago. The ex drives mainly highway miles, so a hybrid was not worth it to her. Both get passed along what the IRS allows. There is not an incentive to get a lower mpg car, it works the other way. I know people at Austin Energy, which owns a fleet of gen II prii and smart cars. If employees have short trips they get reinbursed, if its long they need to take one of the company cars. None of these examples did people need trucks for work. In those cases there really is not much of a choice.

 

Yes, this. The Hybrid Silverado tow rating is rated 6000#. ICE crew cabs with the same 6.2L engine are rated 9400# and 10400#, depending of differential. The hybrid highlander is rated 3500# and the plain old V6 is 5000#. That V6 also has it with just 2WD for those that don't need AWD.

Wth does the Volt have to do with the GM's hybrid trucks have to do with the Volt?

I know you are trying to link them to justify bringing the Volt up, but as a hybrid conversion, the answer for the trucks is obvious. It's for people who wanted to save gas over the ICE counter part.

The problem for poor sales was two fold. The first was price. GM may have been in the position to underwrite the cost when they first arrived to give the market time to grow. Then increased production volume would help, and the engineers would have time to work on reducing the cost and getting into the regular and extended cabs. Or perhaps not, or they did would they afford.

The second was that potential buyers were swayed by the anti-hybrid retoric. The belief that non truck buyers would buy a hybrid one didn't help.

Yes, people that don't need them, buy trucks. Plenty of people buy cars and minivans they don't need. Did you need a Prius PHV? On the other hand, there are people the do need a truck, and this was a fuel saving option for them and the others.

So people may not need a 40 mile PHV, but people seem to want it way more than the two-mode truck.

 

Just saw an older GMC Yukon with a Hybrid emblem driven by a Soccer Mom. It is not a Pickup Truck.

 

Yes, the fixed per mile tax deduction is an incentive for a fuel efficient vehicle. It just seems most people do realize it while car shopping.

You can opt to itemize the maintenance, fuel, insurance, etc. for a vehicle. The only reason to deal with the paper work is if the flat rate is too low for the vehicle, most likely a comercial truck.

The flat rate may be too high, but that might be prevent undercutting reimbursed employees for travel expenses.

 

The flat rate is low for my ex, as her insurance is expensive. My brother makes a little bit, but its really small, and he chose the more efficient car. The government doesn't need to add paperwork to get this tiny bit of revenue from my brother. As we head to the fiscal cliff, you can see much bigger sources of government revenue. The flat rate on mileage makes a lot of sense. Some companies give an incentive for employees to get efficient cars, especially the ones that travel a lot on business. This makes a lot of sense, even though it costs the company money, it increases the real compensation for the employee at a low cost.

 

I think a zipcar typically fits within the $.45/mile allowance, and now they have a few Toyota Tacoma, but not a Tundra yet.

 

But they might have a boat, horses, or even a utility trailer so they wouldn't need a truck and a minivan. Chances are against it, but that's how it is with my friends and family with such vehicles.

 

And the SUVs are doing just a bit better in sales.. Year to End of Nov:
Escale 618
Youkon 495
Tahoe 464

And unlike what some woudl expect, the higher end is selling better.

For the pickups

Silverado 422
GMC Serria 326 (Interesting to note they sold 170 of those in Nov! I wonder why?)

 

With GM legacy for missing the mark so many times, I be really, really surprised if they learned anything this time around.

Maybe with the new, improved Malibu? Naw, Gm will miss on that too.

DBCassidy

 

Perhaps the Volt is needed to "offset" the cafe rating of the full size pickup trucks?

But, then again, the sales of the full size pickups are a "cash cow" for GM. The profits gained could be helping fund further R & D with the Volt. Also research ways to lower the purchase price of this car.

DBCassidy

 

^^^
The lux SUV is a descent market or hybrids. Here is where people actually like the hybrid badges, unlike trucks. GM would do better with a V6 di atkinson or turbo in these big SUVs though. 2-mode seems to work here, but the engine needs improvement, and costs should be brought down.

Trucks need something else though. Those higher sierra sales are likely because the dealers are discounting to get rid of them.
2013 GMC Sierra Hybrid - HybridCars.com

The problem with that rosy comparison with the taco, is the Tacoma is so much less expensive. Hopefully for this segment the toyota/ford collaboration will come up with a better hybrid system for the F150/Tundra/Tacoma. GM may suprise us and be back in the lab doing something better too.

 

Hello Bob, I don't know where I had found this... I'm the king of finding something, and have no idea where I had found it..

Anyway, Bob Lutz is on another adventure. www.viamotors.com
Think of a Surburban, Express, or C/K series truck as a Volt...
I'm not too thrilled about Bob lutz to begin with, but for my Locksmith business would be GREAT!! I can't see the $79k price tag though. Unlike the Volt, the engine is NOT attched to the electric motor, it's all done pure electric unlike the Volt.

This may be the reason why GM won't be making hybrid trucks/SUV's anymore.. Have a nice day..

 

This is what should be done with the profits but what will be done is pocket lining by the execs.

 

Profits? They have had big losses in the last decade. Its only very recently that they have become profitable. This included wiping out some debt, closing factories, laying of workers, cutting compensation for the remaining workers.

Killing the slow selling truck hybrids is the right move. GM still has too many unprofitable products especially in europe.

Focusing on improving the cars is important - spark, sonic, cruze, volt all appear to be winners as does gasoline silverado.

They might be able to do an improved truck hybrid or better phev system, but engineering is thin. I wouldn't expect anything until at least 2014. I don't think via will do well at all. The vehicles are too expensive. They need to save some money incase the red ink from europe sends them back to bankrupcy. OR better yet, kill some of the losing business in europe as well.

 

Sad, but true. You do bring up a very good point.

DBCassidy

 

2014 Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain To Get eAssist Hybrid System

 

eAssist sales for 2012 does put the GM situation into perspective:

Malibu = 15,283
LaCrosse = 11,191
Regal = 2,383

 

How many GM expects to sell if it costs close to 50k?