After much waiting GM finally steps up to the environmental plate. The General Motors company recently announced that two of it’s best selling full-size SUV’s, the Chevy Tahoe and it’s sibling the GMC Yukon, will be available with hybrid power-trains for 2008. GM estimates that the new SUV’s will get 21 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. This figure is a match for so called fuel efficient sedans let alone full size sport utility’s. Their fuel economy in the city matches a 4 cylinder Toyota Camry sedan and betters it’s V6 equivalent by up to 2 mpg. Also these are the first vehicles in GM’s line-up that use their new hybrid transmission which was co-developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW. With over $1 billion dollars invested in this technology you can safely bet it will trickle down to the rest of it’s regular car line-up. The transmission is also expected to make it to it’s line of full size trucks real soon. Optimistic, General motors expects to sell 10,000 units a year for both SUV’s combined with a price tags for both to be in the $40,000 range. The system used mates a 6.0 liter V8 with a electric motor that can actually run on it’s own up to 32 miles an hour. This classifies them as full Hybrids. Also both the Tahoe and Yukon uses cylinder de-activation systems that actually shut off up to four of the engines eight cylinders during cruising along with wind-cheating bumpers to improve aerodynamic efficiency. This news is refreshing coming from a company that has greatly benefited from gas-guzzling SUV’s. Showing a commitment to the greater good definitely gives them brownie points in my book. Well it’s a start anyway. A step in the right direction is better than standing still. Expect to see them on dealer lots soon.