Hollywood movie stars have been known to show up at California events such as the Oscars in a fuel-sipping Toyota Prius hybrid. Not to be outdone, General Motors Canada is also providing hybrids as the ‘official ride of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’ but, in this case, the vehicles are the 2009 Cadillac Escalade SUVs the automaker will launch in autumn.
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The Escalade gets a similar two-mode hybrid drivetrain to the Chevrolet Tahoe, on which it is based. Courtesy of technology supplier, TRW Automotive, just-auto sampled one in France earlier this year and, even at a European test facility, it felt like we were driving a small block of flats on wheels. But performance was strong (and you could sneak along in electric mode for quite a distance and at some speed), road manners were better than expected for this type and size of vehicle, while comfort and equipment levels were top-notch.
GM Canada said the hybrid Escalade gets an overall 25% improvement in fuel consumption and expects it to deliver up to 32% better economy in the city and 25% in combined driving when launched next autumn. It quotes 16mpg city, 26 highway and 19 combined on its website for the standard model.
Starting price of the high-specification Escalade will be C$93,450 (vs about $72,000 for the base model before current incentives of up to $16,000!).
The hybrid technology enables driving at low speeds on electricity alone and it also allows the engine to operate on half of its eight cylinders for longer periods.
“Cadillac is the only luxury brand offering a hybrid in this segment,” said Marc Comeau, vice president of sales, service and marketing for GM Canada. “The Escalade hybrid continues the roll out of our award-winning two-mode hybrid technology, which dramatically reduces fuel consumption and emissions and will be featured on more GM models in the up coming months.”
