Click above for more high-res shots of the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid

It was only a few years ago that General Motors was bullish on the U.S. market for full-size, body-on-frame sport utility vehicles. Today? Not so much. These days, the bottom has fallen out of the big truck market, as even the once untouchable Ford F-150 has seen its perch atop the sales charts come to an abrupt halt. While there will always be a certain number of people who truly need the vast capabilities of the largest of trucks, that demographic is shrinking alarmingly quickly. In lieu of this fact, General Motors may begin phasing out its full-size SUVs. Because this may point to new SUVs from the General using unibody architecture, the future of family stalwarts such as the Suburban and flavor-of-the-day models such as the Cadillac Escalade are in doubt.

We don't expect GM to abandon the market totally, as sales, though down, are still strong enough to warrant the models' place on dealer lots. We do, however, expect that more fuel efficient gasoline engines, diesels and hybrids will join a lighter-weight structure as the long-term future unfolds.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

It's no secret that the pickup truck market is shrinking, with high gas prices as one obvious culprit. In fact, Toyota's ridiculously popular Camry midsize sedan is nipping at the heels of full-size truck stalwarts such as the Chevy Silverado and Ford F-Series. So far this year, General Motors has seen an 18.5 percent decrease in full-size truck sales and a huge 31.5 percent decrease in full-size SUV sales compared to last year. These sobering statistics are forcing GM to reconsider their future product plans. Already testing the waters with its upcoming Pontiac car-based truck and concepts such as the Denali XT, General Motors needs to know just how large of a market will be left and what external forces will continue to impact that dwindling market share.

Mike DiGiovanni, executive director of global market and industry analysis for GM, is leading a research team deep within GM which is "keeping a close eye on full-sized trucks and asking ourselves how much more aggressively we want to enter the crossover space, given where the world is going." So far, his team has figured that the market for big trucks, though shrinking, will still be sizable, though he adds that "all bets are off if oil skyrockets." Hmm, isn't that exactly what oil's been doing lately?

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

In a further sign of weakening demand for large, gas-guzzling SUVs, GM has announced it is idling its 54-year-old Arlington, Texas plant for three weeks. This comes only two weeks after a GM spokeswoman said this about Arlington: "We are currently running at full production and foresee continuing to run at full production indefinitely..." Workers at the plant had been producing 900-1000 Chevrolet Tahoes and Suburbans, GMC Yukons, and Cadillac Escalades a day.

Ten months ago, Autoblog reported large SUVs were holding their own. Now, these models are seeing reduced sales compared with last year as consumers react to the worsening economy and increasing gasoline prices. "Sales of the Escalade fell 25.7 percent in March from year-ago levels, and the others fell more than 30 percent," the Associated Press reports. New orders from dealers have slowed as a result.

[Source: Dallas Morning News and Dallas Business Journal]

Hm, this is an interesting little twist. BusinessWeek's David Welch has written an article about SUVs that might come across as slightly counter-intuitive. It seems that many used-vehicle buyers are once again in the market for large SUVs, even though gas prices and crude oil prices are steadily increasing. Overall, SUV sales are still suffering, but Welch has found that people who shunned SUVs a year or so ago now miss the carrying capacity they once had. The smaller crossovers many turned to just aren't cutting it and don't provide enough of an improvement in the miles-per-gallon category to convince drivers to stay with the mid-sized CUVs.

Ricky Beggs, the vice-president and managing editor of Black Book, told Welch that "People don't like the high gas prices. But they have decided that they need the vehicle." I'd love to see a study that digs deeply into this concept of "need." I certainly don't dispute that some families fit best in a large-ass SUV, but I'm guessing that many people could downsize and deal with it just fine (contrary to Welch's article). I could probably head out to the highway right this moment and spot a lot of SUVs cruising around with just one (or maybe two) people inside. Any readers who have downsized (or upsized) want to chime in?

[Source: BusinessWeek]

There is just something about spending $100 versus spending one penny less that makes you think twice. I might not feel so bad about owning a low mileage SUV if a single fill up did not cost too much even if I had to fill up a lot more often. Psychologically, the worst SUV may not be the SUV with the lowest miles per gallon but the one with the biggest gas tank. So, which SUVs cost more than $100 to fill up right now?

Bankrate.com made a list recently of SUVs and pick ups that get less than 16 miles per gallon (combined city and highway), ranked them by the size of the gas tank and calculated how much it would cost to fill up with a gas price of $3.50 per gallon. The list below uses this week's national average, $3.09, and we see the Ford F250 Super Duty pickup coming in first with a 38-gallon-capacity gas tank and a cost of $117.42 to fill the tank from empty. Here is the list;

• Ford F250 Super Duty pickup, 38 gallons,$117.42
  
• Nissan Titan pickup, 37 gallons, $114.33
  
• Dodge Ram 2500 pickup, 35 gallons, $108.15
  
• Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD pickup, 34 gallons, $105.06
  
• Ford Expedition EL SUV, 33.5 gallons, $103.515
  
• Hummer H2 SUV, 32 gallons, $98.88
  

Below the fold is a video of how a gas tank is made. There is some dispute on if or how one should fill up a gas tank. I wonder if carmakers will actually start to make smaller gas tanks so we don't feel so much of a sticker shock at the pump?

[Source: Bankrate.com]

It's time again to check in with our biodiesel-loving Panamericana 2006 team, driving from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in three green Volkswagen SUVs in 15 days. You can see what they were up to recently here, or jump into the most recent news from the team's daily (belated) updates below.

May 10 – Traveling through the Central American countries is proving difficult to the Panamericana team, and daily detailed updates are impossible, says team member Matthias Jeschke. The short version is that the group is running quite late (showing up to the Guatemalan city of Escuintla nine hours late), and lunch stops are short breaks while tires are changed and other mechanical work is completed. A media event in El Salvador had to be canceled because of the time pressure. In Honduras, a military escort shepherds the SUVs through the country.

May 11 – The time pressure builds because the SUVs need to be on a cargo flight over the Panama Canal by 7:45 on the 12th. At the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border, though, another border guard stymies the entire convoy until he is convinced by someone high in the Foreign Ministry to let the SUVs pass. Now running later than ever, it's not much further to the Canal. We'll have to wait until the next update to see how they fared.

[Source: Panamericana]

Yesterday was supposed to be the launch day for the Panamericana biodiesel trip from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, the whole western edge of North and South America. We promised last week to keep tabs on what the Panamericana group is self-reporting on how the trip is going, but that’s not possible yet. As of right now, the Panamericana website has no news of how the first day went, even though daily updates were promised. I hope the adventure of taking three SUVs over 15,000 miles using nothing but biodiesel is off to a grand start, but there’s no way to tell yet. Maybe soon.

[Source: Panamericana]