Most of the news about hybrid cars came from Japan. Toyota came with their Prius while Honda came with their Insight and Civic. There are some cars from Europe as well such as BMW 320D diesel hybrid but Japan was the one to dominate the hybrid market according to the sales statistics.

The American vehicle legend was always about performance and safety. They were not much concerned about fuel efficiency. Therefore, most of the American vehicles were having a hardy metal body and huge engines which does less than 20 MPG. They survived for decades, yet could not give good competition to highly economical Japanese cars which do more than 30 MPG. The sales of American cars continued to drop for the past few years putting most of the American Automobile manufacturers in great financial danger.

However as it appears to be, Americans never gave up. For the year 2012 they introduced a new line of Yukon SUV from legendary GMC (General Motor Cars). They are having the same huge engine and maximum safety as any American vehicle has, plus considerably good fuel efficiency. And they introduced Hybrid version of GMC Yukon as well which does more than 20 MPG which is too much to hope from this metal monster and he is under today’s spotlight in Notes Of Genius.

Special Features

Exterior

Most of the previous versions of GMC SUVs were having a hardy metal look. But new Yukon is has a very smooth curved edge design. In order to improve aerodynamics they have undertaken many measures including lowered front, smooth leading edge of hood and rear spoiler. Other than that they have included light weight 18” alloy wheels with less rolling friction.

Yukon has good ground clearance and at the same time it’s having lower center of gravity which gives maximum stability and safety to the vehicle. All the air intakes are carefully placed not to disturb the smooth air flow around the vehicle to ensure the stability.

The catchiest feature in exterior is placement of lights. The main lamps are powered with Dual halogen bulbs. Other lights are also nicely designed and adds extra value to the vehicle.

Interior

Yukon Hybrid has 8 leather passenger seats with more leg space like no other SUV. This will give the ultimate conformability to the passengers and maximum safety with the 3 point seat belts. Dashboard is having a very simple design yet giving all the required information to the driver.

There is an information display in the middle of the dashboard to display the status of the hybrid controls including power flow, power ratio used, battery power remaining etc.

Engine and Transmission

GMC never seemed to like to go for a smaller engine displacement. Most of the Asian SUVs are having approximately 2.5 Engine displacements while GMC Yukon Hybrid is having 6.0 L V8 engine which gives 332 hp @ 5100 rpm. Of course this huge engine will deliver quick performance which will provide a  great driving experience with great responsive controlling.

Unlike in older versions of GMC vehicles, they are focused on fuel efficiency as well. In new Yukon Hybrid there is a technology named Active Fuel Management. This is having an algorithm to engage and disengage pistons to save fuel according to the driving conditions.

Ex: When you are accelerating, all 8 pistons will be engaged. When you are in constant cruising speed, 4 pistons will disengage since it only needs power to maintain the speed.

If you take a closer look in to the hybrid technology, the GMC Yukon hybrid is powered by 2 Mode Hybrid engine. This technology allows the engine to run on electricity, fuel or combination of both. The controlling unit will decide what the best fuel source for the condition of drive. Same as in any other hybrid vehicle Yukon Hybrid is also having Regenerative Breaks. The 300V battery which powers up the hybrid engine is placed under the 2^nd row seat.

The entire information related to hybrid engine will be displayed on the above mentioned information display in dashboard.

Yukon Hybrid comes with 6 speed hybrid automatic transmission. 4 Wheel Drive is not a standard option yet it’s available for special orders.

Hi-Tech

Yukon Hybrid is equipped with many high tech features. If you take a look in to the car’s audio and video, it’s having 9 speaker sound system with 8”display and a DVD player. There is a separate display in between rear seats as well. Adding an extra value this multimedia system supports wireless head phones for the rear seats.

In case you need to use your mobile phone while you are driving, you can connect it to car audio system using blue tooth connectivity and then it works as a hands free system.

Yukon Hybrid comes with lots of other sophisticated features such as rear view camera, GPS navigation system and touch sensitive display.

Why You Should Go For GMC Yukon Hybrid?

Safety

The main reason to buy GMC Yukon is its great safety features like no other Asian vehicle offers. Mainly it’s having a solid metal body and sub frame to ensure safety in a collision. It’s having 360 degrees safety which comes from air bag system covering not only front, but sides and other areas. There is a children safety seat as well. As additional safety system there is an intelligent breaking assistant, tyre pressure monitor and parking assist.

This is one major factor that GMC vehicles are still here in the automobile market though they have very low mileage compared to Japanese vehicles. No Japanese vehicle can ensure the safety that GMC vehicle can offer its passengers. Therefore, people who are willing to pay extra to get that level of safety still go for GMC regardless of the very low mileage.

Performance

Another reason to buy a GMC Yukon Hybrid is its power. It’s giving 332 hp from its 6.0 L V8 engine. There are very few SUVs which will give that kind of power to your drive. And this power will give you a nice driving experience since driving controllers are snappy responsive. To control this iron monster there is a 4 wheel anti-lock disk brakes system.

With all these power, Yukon Hybrid can accelerate 0-60 mph within 8.1 seconds.

Fuel Efficiency

If safety and performance are your concerns of course you cannot expect that vehicle to be highly economical. Most of the previous versions of Yukon were doing less than 15 MPG. Still most of the people who bought Yukon were happy with it when it comes to other great features it offered.

The new GMC Yukon Hybrid is doing 20 MPG in city driving conditions according to its specification which gives you fairly economical drive in this huge vehicle. In a Highway, a Yukon hybrid will do 23 MPG.

No matter what, these huge metal monsters are having very a limited market due to global economical conditions. Most of the countries who used to buy GMC vehicles such as Saudi Arabia are  also now going for economical Japanese vehicles. Even in USA Japanese vehicles, especially hybrid vehicles sales are sky rocketing because they are doing more that 40 MPG.

If GMC want to compete in this market, they have to scale down their vehicles to meet the general requirement of the automobile users. But as it appears they are not willing to go on that track. They still believe in huge vehicles with huge engines. Hope this hybrid version of Yukon will give them a hope to survive in automobile market and continue their ledged started from 1908.

Engine and Power Supply

It has an Engine Power of 111 kW (149 hp) electric motor and 1.4 L 4-cylinder for powering 53 kW (71 hp) generator. For up to the first 64 km (40miles) the Volt will be powered by electricity, which is charged in lithium-ion batteries that charged from an electrical power outlet. After 64 km, a small 4-cylinder gasoline internal combustion engine creates electricity on-board using a 53 kW (71 hp) generator to extend the Volt’s range to more than 300 miles (483 km). The electrical power from the generator is sent to either the electric motor or the batteries, depending on the state of charge (SOC) of the battery pack and the power demanded at the wheels.

The Model

The Chevrolet Volt has four doors with a rear lift gate and can be seated for four passengers. In addition, the top speed has also been increased from the electronically 134 km/h to 160 km/h. The battery pack size has also been reduced from 300L to 100L. The design model first revealed to the public on September 16, 2008. The lithium-ion battery technology in which the cathode contains the lithium has a large impact in determining the success of the car.

Efficient Fuel Consuming

If the batteries are fully charged, without any other fuel supplies, the Volt can travel less than 64 km trips using only the stored electricity in lithium-ion batteries. Once the Volt’s battery has discharged to the estimated 30% lower State of Charge (SoC) limit, the engine starts and supplies power to the electric motor to continue driving the car and maintain the battery charge at 30%.

The Smart Phone Application For The Chevy Volt

General Motors has unveiled an application, which has successfully developed by the OnStar for Chevrolet Volt drivers that will let them remotely control the whole car in their Blackberry, iPhone or Motorola Droid in the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on 05^th of January 2010.

Drivers can communicate with their Volt using the OnStar’s Mobile Application with the real-time data connection to perform number of tasks. The OnStar application has offered a wide range of interaction and control, which has never offered on any electric vehicle before. The features including:

• Display charge status
• Schedule time for charge or notify to charge
• Display battery charge level in percentage
• Notify via text messages to drivers to plug in their vehicle when the battery level is low
• Status reports
• Warming up or cooling the vehicle before getting in
• Showing miles per gallon, EV miles and miles driven for last trip and lifetime

The president of the OnStar Walt Dorfstatter has stated  that “The Chevrolet Volt ushers in a new era of automotive technology and calls for a new level of connectivity and control, Nearly 6 million vehicles on the road today use OnStar to stay connected, and our new Smartphone app will make that even easier for Volt drivers.”

OnStar servers are the intermediary between the OnStar application and the Volt. The application has the communication facility with the OnStar servers. Because of the OnStar’s real-time data connection, it helps drivers maximize the environmental benefits owning a Volt. Using the power from the grid, the driver can remotely start the Volt to pre-condition the interior temperature. It saves the battery charge for long driving.

Volt drivers can also view and manage vehicle systems and commands from the vehicle, the Internet or through a monthly OnStar Vehicle Diagnostic e-mail. Traditional OnStar features such as door lock, unlock and remote horn and lights-typically accessible only through a call to an OnStar center-will be available via the application.

Currently the application works on the Apple iPhone, Motorola Droid and Blackberry Storm, and General Motors says it also will be available on a mobile browser for other Smartphones. The demo application can be downloaded from iTunes store for Apple iPhone and for Motorola Droid and Blackberry Storm the application available at OnStarMobileDemo.com. Initial sales of the Chevy Volt, scheduled for production in late 2010 and the price have estimated to $40,000.

References

• (n.d). Retrieved January 2010 from hybridcars.com: http://www.hybridcars.com/news/gm-unveils-chevy-volt-smartphone-application-26402.html
• (n.d). Retrieved January 2010 from egmcartech.com: http://www.egmcartech.com/2010/01/06/chevrolet-volt-smartphone-app-lets-you-control-things-from-your-iphone-storm-dorid/
• (n.d). Retrieved January 2010 from wired.com: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2010/01/volt_smartphone_app.jpg
• (n.d). Retrieved January 2010 from wired.com: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/chevrolet-volt-gets-an-iphone-app/