The Dodge Durango is the quintessential, work-hard, play-hard, do-anything SUV—except when filling up a 13-mpg vehicle means it’s smarter to leave it parked in the driveway. To avoid this dilemma, the Durango is now offered as a hybrid. The Durango Hybrid is expected to achieve fuel economy ratings of 18 in the city and 19 on the highway. That’s about a 40 percent improvement in the city and a 5 percent improvement on the highway over the gas-powered Hemi model.
The Durango Hybrid will begin arriving in showrooms in the summer of 2008. No word on price yet.
The Durango’s powertrain will add electric motors to Chrysler’s 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. That’s right. It’s a Hemi hybrid. The one-two punch of Hemi and electric drive will produce 385 horsepower. The technology is the “two-mode” hybrid system—similar to the one being used in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids. The chief benefit of this hybrid approach, rather than systems found on some competing hybrids, is uncompromised towing capacity. In addition, the 5,500-pound Dodge Durango offers a capable four-wheel drive system that utilizes a single-speed transfer case. The rear-biased system can send up to 100 percent of power to the back wheels, depending on the need and road conditions. The combined result is solid pulling power and a tow limit of 6,000 pounds. That may fall short of the non-hybrid Durango’s 8,950-pound capacity, but it’s still quite respectable.
| 
|