There’s a chart on fueleconomy.gov that’s a graphic illustration of what happened to GM. The chart is a compilation of 2009 hybrid vehicles. It lists 27 hybrid vehicles in descending order from the highest mileage cars to the lowest.

At the top of the chart, perch some of the highest mileage vehicles available, the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic and the Nissan Altima. The top two clock in at 40 mpg and up. The Altima at 33-35 mpg.

The lowest mileage vehicles reside at the bottom of the chart. And the bottom five are all GM products: The GMC Yukon, Chevy Tahoe, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado and Cadillac Escalade.

This isn’t surprising. GM was focused on trucks and SUVs. It’s what they did best. And for quite awhile, America wanted these wheels. Now, everyone from lawmakers to Joe the Neighborhood Critic laments that GM failed to produce better mileage vehicles. Our vision is 20/20.

But what about this apparent tactical error of putting all their initial hybrid technology into large trucks and SUVs? Trucks and SUVs that tend to get 20 mpg on the highway and 20 mpg in the city (the four at the bottom of the list) — a 20/20 vision that doesn’t make sense in 2009, and especially not looking ahead to 2020.

Did it not occur to GM that perhaps these gas-guzzlers appealed to people who might not really care whether their luxury vehicles got 16 mpg or 20 mpg? Surely they understood that customers were mainly buying SUVs and big hulking trucks as status symbols (and occasionally to pull their boats or ATVs)? That pouring their gas-saving technology into this class of auto was like dressing up for a phantom ball?

Or were they just sticking to the market segment they knew best, making improvements on top sellers and clinging to high-margin models? Upping the gas mileage of the worst mileage vehicles did achieve a great percentage gain in mpg. But did the customers buy it? Did SUV drivers pay the hybrid upcharge? Not so much, and especially not now. Phantom Ball.

Roland Hwang, vehicles policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, once referred to the Tahoe hybrid as putting lipstick on a pig.

By not building some smaller vehicles with great mileage credentials, sooner and with enthusiasm, as a hedge if nothing else, GM essentially put all its pigs in one basket. And now it suffers.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By Clint Williams

Imagine a day of running errands – grocery shopping, dropping off the dry cleaning, hauling the kids to T-ball practice – that doesn’t include a stop for gas. Now imagine a week. A month. Three months. Six months. A year. Five years.

That’s the promise of the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car expected in dealer showrooms November 2010. Powered by a T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack, the four-passenger Volt will be able to travel 40 miles on a charge.

MORE FROM GRN

Video: Watch an overview of the Chevy Volt

That’s enough range for the bulk of daily driving, GM officials say, citing a U.S. Department of Transportation survey that found 76 percent of drivers commute 40 miles or less daily.

Drive a Volt and the only reasons for stopping at a QT are Slurpees and microwave breakfast burritos.

But those driving a Volt won’t be limited to in-town driving. A 1.4-liter, four-cylinder engine to be built in Flint, Michigan serves as an onboard generator, kicking in to charge the battery after 40 miles and giving the Volt the range of a conventional automobile.

The Volt isn’t a gasoline-electric hybrid, GM’s Cristi Landy points out repeatedly during a day-long introduction of the car last week at the Texas Motor Speedway near Dallas. The Volt, she says, “is an extended-range electric vehicle.”

Electricity powers the front-wheel-drive Volt all the time and at all speeds. Hybrid cars on the road now such as the Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid use a combination of an electric motor and gas-powered internal combustion engine to make them go. The electric motor is used at low speeds or to boost acceleration. Once you’re up to freeway speeds, however, it’s the gasoline engine that is doing all the work. That explains why the EPA mileage estimates of the Prius are higher for city driving than for highway driving, the flip-flop of what you might expect.