2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid - Review

By John Voelcker

John Voelcker

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John is Senior Editor for High Gear Media. In addition to news coverage and new car reviews, John creates and oversees all editorial for High Gear's... More

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2010 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid

Otherwise, it’s a completely standard 2010 four-door crew-cab pickup truck—the only body style offered, since the nickel-metal-hydride battery pack sits below the rear seat. It sports a chrome rear bumper and what Chevy calls a “chrome surround grille.” Translation: Lotsa chrome.

We like the Chevy’s styling. It’s more restrained than the cartoonishly macho lines of the Ford F-150, though not as sleek as the recently redesigned Ram. Ours came in a rich metallic blue, but it was still as anonymous a truck as you could get short of a white panel van. No one looked twice.

PERFORMANCE

First things first: Over a 350-mile weekend test that included Interstate travel and around-town hauling, our 2010 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid returned a very respectable 18.8 miles per gallon. The 18.5 gallons it consumed represented just three-quarters of the vast fuel tank.

The EPA rates the Silverado Hybrid with four-wheel-drive at 21 mpg city, 22 mpg highway—right at the top of the scale for its standard pickup truck category, and a 40-percent improvement over the standard truck.

We didn’t baby our truck, gunning it when needed to keep up with or drive around traffic, and we think our mileage is about what owners would get in the real world.

The Silverado Hybrid’s 6.0-liter Vortec V-8 is paired to the fiendishly complex Two-Mode Hybrid transmission, which includes two electric motor-generators, four fixed gears, and multiple clutches and planetary gear sets. The hardware lets the system use electric power not only in low-speed urban driving, like most hybrids, but also at highway speeds and while towing heavy loads.

The combined engine and hybrid transmission puts out 332 horsepower, and 367 foot-pounds of torque. Towing capacity is 6100 pounds, though if you specify four-wheel-drive, it falls to 5900 pounds. The battery pack and hybrid electric components are warranted for 8 years/100,000 miles.