GM finally comes out with a good hybrid

Do you mean GE? GE and GM are two very different companies....

 

I got it to open; here's a quote:

[GE's --not GM's-- spokesperson]:

“The 1,000th Evolution locomotive -- an enormous, big-ticket item that entered commercial production just 18 months ago -- will soon roll off our assembly line and go into service on America's rails."

“Also on our drawing boards: A 200-ton, "Prius-on-rails" hybrid locomotive."

[the article]

What is at stake is beyond GE’s financial performance and celebrity status as green ambassador of US industry. Mr. Immelt has picked up the gauntlet so often flung by politicians, economic theorists, and free market utopians. …typically these would be people with no, or minimal, business experience of their own…and put it upon the hands of thousands of GE employees. It fits! The evidence is in, and little is left to spin or speculate on, establishing quite clearly that doing good things for the environment can be profitable.

His message is circumspect, and we hope he will not object to a TreeHugger interpolation. The “goodâ€, or profit, if you will, is not just for GE; it is for their customers, and their customers' customers. A GE-made freight engine that hauls goods more efficiently makes such firms as Wal-Mart and Whole Foods more resource efficient in distributing goods to you Dear Reader. Once some of the freight train emissions have been turned into a “nega-input†across multiple supply chains, the Climate Change mitigation gains are irreversible. It is every bit as important to do this as it is for a customer to chose going to the store on a bicycle or in a hybrid vehicle instead of in an SUV.

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Makes sense; add a bunch of batteries to give more torque when the train's just getting started, then recharge them underway. Besides, more weight=more tractive effort, so I suppose that in this case, added weight would be desirable.

 

I kinda wish it was GM.

I mean, they were, to a significant degree, responsible for populairzing the diesel loco after WWII...wouldn't it be fitting for them to once again revolutionize railroading?

Might also provide their engineering folks with ideas about building a better car.

Come to think of it, I don't even know if GM even builds locomotives anymore.