Auto Trends

…Will be the hype of many celebrities, starts at no less than $70 grand a pop, has enough seating for an entire g-money crew, and comes with rims the size of its mpg?

None other than the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid…

Cadillac is no dummy. They don’t want to be left out in the cold this winter as sales for compacts continue to outdo most SUV’s like they were a one legged midget at a butt kicking contest.

Cadillac has set the bar at 20 mpg or so with its new Escalade, which is actually quite similar to several of the other SUV hybrids that are not selling too great. Is all that bling-bling going to be able to get peoples attention from the slew of 30-plus mpg hybrids coming into action?

Well, GM certainly thinks so, and here is what they plan to bring to the table to do it…

The ‘Greening’ of the Beast

First of all unlike the direction of a few luxury SUV’s, such as the Lexus RX 400h, the Escalade Hybrid is going to be close to the same functionality as the original 6.2 liter 400 horsepower Cadillac. This means it will be able to tow, haul, and haul-a__, slaughtering any Toyota Prius off the line using its 332 horsepower and 367 lb-ft of torque, 6.0 liter V-8.

But the Prius owner won’t mind, as they know slow and steady always wins the race. 20 mpg maybe good for a large SUV, but it is certainly not going to win you any humanitarian awards, especially if you don’t have any real use for a large luxury SUV. But 20 mpg is a lot more impressive than some environmentalists might give it credit for. In fact, a lot of technology went into the nearly 10 mpg gained from the standard V-8.

Let’s take a look at the Escalade’s recipe for achieving its green status:

30 hp Electric Motor

First and foremost the hybrid Escalade comes with a 30 horsepower 300-volt nickel metal hydride battery, which can regenerate itself much like the Toyota Prius during stopping and coasting. It does this by switching the electric motor over to an electric generator which helps recharge the battery without relying on the gas engine to do so 100 percent of the time.

The electric motor is claimed to actually be the sole mode of power during light take-offs and low speed cruising around town. The hybrid also has adopted smaller car-like tires (Yes, those 22’s are not conducive to good gas mileage) and a more aerodynamic front grill and bumper.

EVT Transmission

It comes with an (EVT) Electronic Variable Transmission, which offers multiple gear ratios for optimum transmission efficiency. The EVT also serves as the control module that decides at what point should the electric power become gas and vice versa (or a combination of the two).

Active Fuel Management System

To top things off, the V-8 Escalade Hybrid makes good use of the popular Active Fuel Management System that allows its V-8 the opportunity to become a 4-cylinder at a stable cruising speeds by shutting off half it’s cylinders. This is the whole reason that the 2010 Camaro is able to achieve 23 mpg with a 422 horsepower 6.0 liter V-8.

The 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid may indeed prevail this summer where other SUV hybrids have failed… especially if consumers continue to see the lower gas prices we’ve been enjoying!

There are a lot of great new technologies appearing these days to improve fuel efficiency, such as Eco-boost engines, cylinder shut-down technology, and electric motors… but then we also have some questionable technology out there…

Such as vehicles with solar panels and front bumper wind generators, that are just barely able to gather up enough energy to light up a cigarette. Then there is hydrogen vehicles that would literally bankrupt any nation to oblivion with their trillion dollar hydrogen infrastructure… and now we introduce to you another questionable idea, the Eco-pedal by Nissan.

The ECO Pedal as it has been dubbed is a new effort put forth by Nissan to battle poor fuel economy. How it works, is as the vehicle is in motion, the computer module calculates the exact gas ratio that would offer the best fuel economy at any particular moment in driving and then it attempts to nudge/adjust the pedal for you, while your foot is on it.

Okay, so let’s get this straight. Let’s say you are entering a busy highway intersection and you press the accelerator to safely fit into traffic. Are we going to be fighting the Nissan backseat driver telling us the slow down the whole time?

Yes we are… unless you turn the darn thing off. Which thankfully it does have an on/off switch.

This, what would seem at first glance, irritating, little technological gadget is said by Nissan to probably offer somewhere in the range of a 5 to 10 percent gas savings over time by teaching better driving habits. In other words, it will pull some of that lead out of our toes by nagging us to death when we are driving too fast or aggressive.

We can already hear some of the conversations that will be going on between the consumer and the Nissan backseat driver:

“Oh, no you don’t…”

“What, I’m hardly even going the speed limit here”

“If you do that one more time!”

“Okay, that does it, your off”

They might as well have pre-programed mother-in-law voices to tell us when we are driving over the speed limit too. We could be looking at a whole new type of internal road rage this coming 2009 when the Eco-pedal is finally released… joy!

You might be expecting the Bugatti Veyron, which has tipped the scales this year at a whopping $2 million. And what exactly does $2 million buy today. Well, you get the top of the line luxurious interior, seats, safety harness, steering wheel, smooth suspension, chrome wheels, jet fighter precision engineering, a 1001 bhp V-16 quad turbo charged engine, and the capability to knocking a tick off your shoulder without even touching it.

The Bugatti Veyron is said to shoot off faster than Simon Cowell’s mouth with its claimed 0-62 in just 2.6 seconds. But as fast as the Veyron can spool up, it is still no match for emptying the wallet of any B-list sitcom television star as the Maybach Exelero.

The three year old Maybach Exelero was recently boosted to $7.8 million status earlier last month. While its 700 horsepower bi-turbo V-12 would hardly seem to do its price tag justice, you must realize you are not paying for the ultimate horsepower that has been put into the engine, but rather the number of bashed fingers coupled by choice four letter words ($#*!) that went into wrenching it together.

Yes, the Maybach Exelero is 100% hand assembled, from its plush leather seating to its beautiful HVAC control knobs. Every sexy curve has practically been hand carved out of its carbon fiber body panels. Not one robot arm has touched these vehicles in any way. Each car is an original Rembrandt masterpiece of sorts, and that is what each of those nearly eight million smackeroos is going towards.

With all that hand shaped bodywork, the Maybach Exelero is not quite as aerodynamic as one might think that kind of money should buy. With its 0.28 aerodynamics coefficient, both the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight beat it with their a 0.25, and the aged 1990 GM Impact (a.k.a. EV1) slaughters it with its 0.195.

But when your making 700 horsepower, pulling three tons, and punching holes throughout the atmosphere with its 2.4 mpg, it shouldn’t much matter.

Why are we being so hard on such a beautiful, well built, and executed car?

Well, because it costs $7.8 million dollars… and we want to make sure should we ever win the lotto, that we’d be getting our moneys worth!

Maybach Exelero Specifications:

• Length 19.3 feet
• Width 7.0 feet
• Weight 5864 lbs (yeah, you’re going to need 700 horsepower alright)
• Engine Bi-Turbo V12 (700 horsepower, 737 lb-ft of torque)
• Top speed 218 mph
• 0-62 mph 4.4 seconds
• Tires 315/25 ZR 23 Fulda Exelero
• Preferred Fuel for top speed 110 octane
• Cost $7,800,000 USD (and a free t-shirt that says ‘I Spent $8 Million Dollars and all I got was a Lousy 700 horsepower’)