Chevy Tahoe is Green Car of the Year?!

We think the Tahoe is a kinda lame vehicle, just like the Excursion and the Sequoia and all the other too-big, too-powerful SUVs.

But the fact is, no one can stop car companies from making them if people want to buy them. And people do want to buy them; almost a third of cars sold are still large SUVs.

As much as that sucks, we can't stop it without government intervention... and we're still waiting to see how that turns out.

So long as people are buying these behemoths to haul their yachts up 17% grades at 70 mph (or get the kids home from school), it's probably a good idea to try and make them more fuel efficient.

And the Chevy Tahoe 2 Mode hybrid absolutely does that. I suppose that's why it's the "Green Car of the Year."

It's really strange to see such a collassal vehicle pinned with that label, but it's also hard to deny the power of the innovations that make this radical increase in fuel efficiency possible.

The Tahoe gets the same city fuel efficiency as a 2008 Honda Accord. In city driving, the Tahoe rarely even turns on its gasoline engine, and the 2 mode system allows the electric engine to continue assisting the car even at very high speeds, increasing highway economy as well.

City drivers get a more than a 50% increase in fuel economy by switching to the hybrid.

While 21 mpg isn't a big shocking number, it is technology being used to improve the environment. So we're going to try and stop complaining about the fact that SUVs exist, and move on to being happy that they're being improved.

Is the Green Car Journal crazy for not giving this award to a smaller car?

Or were the options just so thin on the ground that they had to go with the most interesting technology in the bunch?

Or does the Tahoe Hybrid truly deserve to be called a green(er) car? 

See also:

• From LA: The Future is Green, but is the Present? 
• Hybrid SUV: Alternative or Oxymoron
• Chevy, GMs Green Brand?
• Is the Prius Green?

EcoGeek's coverage of the LA Auto Show was underwritten by the General Motors Company, which, we agree, is very strange since we say some fairly mean things about them with some regularity. The only condition of their assistance (travel and lodging) is that I disclose it, which, of course, I would have done anyway.