2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid - Review

By Eric Loveday

Eric Loveday

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Eric Loveday is a car enthusiast with a love for everything automotive. He purchased a 1970 Chevelle at age 16, quickly outgrew its dated engineering... More

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2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid

A 6,000 pound hybrid SUV is not the image that first comes to mind when you think about a fuel efficient vehicle, but the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid packs fuel efficiency into an oversized wrapper.  Think about this, the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid gets better city gas mileage than a 2008 Mini Cooper S convertible.

GM's Escalade hybrid receives an epa rating of 20 mpg city and 21 mpg highway.  Compared to the standard Escalade which recieves only 12 mpg city and 19 mpg highway.  Those numbers show an improvement of 67% for city mpg for the Escalade Hybrid, but how does it drive?

The hybrid's repsonses are slow.  It's 6.0 liter V8 churns out only 332 horsepower which is 71 horsepower shy of the 6.2 liter V8 in the standard Escalade.  Further, the hybrid models tips the scales at 344 pounds heavier than the standard model even though the hybrid lacks awd.  The standard Escalade reaches sixty miles per hour in a relatively quick 6.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.2.  Numbers that are strong for a large SUV.  However, the hybrid model boasts 0-60 times of 8.4 seconds and 16.5 seconds to reach the quarter mile making the hybrid feel sluggish and lacking the punch for stoplight to stoplight driving.

Hybrids don't focus on acceleration numbers, but most consumers do not seem willing to give up much performance unless there is a significant fuel savings advantage.  The hybrid Escalade will not dissapoint in mpg in city driving, though the highway driving numbers between the standard and hybrid model are very similar.

What may detract would be buyers from the hybrid Escalade is it's price.  The hybrid Escalade starts at a whopping $73,475 a $10,930 premium over a base model.  With the premium price comes a lot of standard equipment on the hybrid model, even so, a comparably equipped non-hybrid model will set you back about $5,000 less than the hybrid version.

The Escalade hybrid is a solid performer, but are consumers willing to pay the premium.

Source:  Car and Driver