I’m not actually sure myself whether that’s sarcasm or not, because I’m not yet quite sure what to think about GM’s new hybrid heavy-duty SUV trio. The Yukon, Tahoe, and Escalade are now available with GM’s sophisticated new 2-mode hybrid system, developed together with BMW and DaimlerChrysler. The technology will be spreading through various product lines at all three companies over the next few years.

All anyone should really care about, though, are the numbers. And they’re shockingly good, at least in terms of percentage increase. The three SUVs get 50% better mileage compared to their non-hybrid counterparts, which is a pretty incredible achievement in itself. That brings their mileage up to around 18-20 mpg. Which, while tragically bad on its own, is actually better than pretty much any other trucks near its class. Even the imports. Actually, especially the imports. Fuck greenwashing.

Its easy to look at the number in isolation and disregard the entire affair as fruitless, but if you accept that people will still buy trucks and SUVs until they get some real disincentives (back to the gas tax) it makes a lot of sense. You can make a lot greater difference by improving the worst, and sadly, most popular, offenders than by trying to achieve hyper-efficiency in a niche market, replacing vehicles that have reasonable efficiency already. I may not like that people are buying SUVs in the first place, but there’s nothing anyone can (legally) do to stop them, so they might as buy ones that aren’t quite as bad.

Of course, I only come to that conclusion when I’m in a charitable mood. The rest of the time, I’m not willing to accept that first fundamental point about people buying humongous SUVs. Perhaps its time to put in a plug for FUH2.

(If this thing is symmetrical, it means it has at least 8 “hybrid” badges on it. Subtle, no?)