I am new to Hybrid world as I drive a 1000+hp vette on the weekends "at least it has an E85 conversion on it I guess". I wanted to give the Chevy Silverado hybrid a shot but I am a little skeptical, especially trucks.

I have an opportunity to get a 2009 Silverado 4dr Hybrid at a killer deal after a bad wreck that totalled my last truck. Few questions..

Towing.. Will it tow a 1,500lb trailor and a 3,200lb corvette behind it as well as a normal 5.3L Silverado?
What is the real MPG?
What know problems should I expect?
I hear that the battery has like a 8yr warranty?
I test drove it and it never goes into EV mode.. is that normal? I assume if so, warranty would fix it..
Any surprises I should expect?

All feedback is greatly appreciated!! Thanks in ADVANCE!

 

almost 50 reviews an no one has any thoughts?

 

tow capacity is 6000lbs, okay for your corvette. real mpg without change in driving habits(speeding, fast starts, etc) is 17mpg city. now if driven like a hybrid should, slow starts, slow gradual stops will get you 20mpg. highway= up to 25.7 mpg average. with gas almost $4.50 per gal that is a lot of savings.

 

The GM two-mode hybrids will only use a pure EV mode at under 30 MPH. The truck needs to be warmed up - which could be 10 or 15 minutes of driving depending on the time of year. After the truck has warmed up, when you stop you should see the truck drop into "auto stop". A *very* gentle acceleration should keep the truck in auto-stop until you hit 30, or the power demand forces it to start the engine. You should also see the truck dropping into auto-stop if you happen to hit a slow stretch of road. I often travel through Carson City where the speed limit is 25 and the truck will go through most of town in pure EV mode.

As evois says - the truck has a towing capacity just shy of 6000 lbs, so it should be plenty for you to tow the Vette. If not - feel free to drop the Vette here - I'll be happy to look after it!

The main benefit of the two-mode hybrid system is that it provides a little extra assistance to the engine which will help the Vortec engine run in 4 cylinder mode. The hybrids should run in 4 cylinder mode for much longer periods of time then the non-hybrids - thus giving you the majority of the gas savings. The DIC has a screen which shows you the instantaneous mileage and whether you are running in V8 or V4 mode.

When I picked up my hybrid, it had been sitting on the dealer's lot for over 6 months. I saw very little battery assist until I happened to come down a long grade and popped the transmission into M3. That seemed to energize the battery pack and the hybrid system has been working well since then. According to the mechanic at my dealer, the nominal state of charge of the battery is 50%. It may just be my imagination, but it seems to me that when I have an extended period of downhill and control the speed with either using the regeneration of the brakes by lightly touching the brakes coming downhill, or using M4/M3 (which actually appears to use quite a bit of gas) that the battery's state of charge goes over 50% and the truck then seems much more eager to go into auto-stop mode. Of course, at the bottom of most of the downhills around here, the speed limits are under 30, so the truck has a great opportunity to run on EV only.

I tend to get about 21 MPG around town if the drives are not really short and the roads are clear. About 17-18 if I have to 4WD around town in the snow. I see about 19-20 MPG on longer trips - but all of those trips so far include more then a mile change in elevation - so not really a way to max out MPG's. One of these days I'll have an extended drive on flat roads in nice weather and believe I'll see 25+ MPG's.

Yes, the battery pack has an 8 year/100,000 mile warranty.

If you are concerned about the health of the pack - why not take it to a local Chevy dealer and have them hook their diagnostic computer up to the truck. With that they can monitor the state of charge and also the amount of current flowing into the battery and let you know if they see any issues.

I'm really happy with my truck so far.

 

towing rattings are low only because of the battery cooling system capacity, not engine or transmission related. Remember this transmissions are a refinement of the ones used in public buses, moving a lot of weight !

I have towed my race truck a lot of times, and the longest distance was 600 miles (2 way)

My truck tips the scale over 4500 lbs, and the trailer must be around 1000 lbs.