Odyssey International: Masthead
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Cadillac Escalade Hybrid in Paradise

March 26th, 2009

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The folks at Turtle Kraals restaurant are a docile group on this balmy Sunday morning. Lisa and I chow down on sausage and eggs while a couple at the next table fuss over plates of steaming huevos rancheros tinkering with the gossip column of the Miami Herald newspaper.

A skinny chihuahua, tethered to a table leg across the patio, yaps while his owner sips a foamy latte and stares across the harbour into the Gulf of Mexico. A curious pelican, perched on a post out front, twists his head around to take in the idyllic scene of Sunday morning coming down in Key West, Florida.

I consider the new Cadillac Escalade Hybrid SUV Lisa and I drove across town from our hotel to catch ‘the best breakfast’ on the Keys. After start up, I noticed the tachometer drop to zero, and we drove the entire route, about four kilometres, on battery power.
So, its 6.0-litre, 332 horsepower V8 engine had a lazy morning too. And we got a fuel-free ride to breakfast while the 300-volt nickel-metal hydride battery pack, that recharges when braking or coasting, did the work. There is something comforting about cruising the back streets of Key West with the engine tachometer sitting at zero RPMs. Who needs an electric scooter?

The Cadillac Escalade Two-Mode Hybrid is the world’s first hybrid applied to a large luxury SUV and with a 50% increase in city fuel economy, it is the most fuel-efficient vehicle in its class.

We had driven to Key West the day before, island hopping across the Florida Keys over a series of bridges during the 240-kilometre drive from Miami with a combined city/highway fuel consumption of 9.95 L/100 kilometres (28.4 miles per gallon).

Before leaving Miami’s hedonistic South Beach strip, where car watching is right up there with people watching, some folks seemed pleased that Cadillac has gone green with its iconic workhorse.

“Hey, is that thing electric?” shouted one wide-eyed motorcyclist who had obviously noticed the tasteful hybrid badge on the front quarter panel.

The fact that ‘hybrid fever’ can be treated without sacrificing carrying capacity, comfort and towing ability is something Americans seem to be ready for. Hey, you can still haul a horse trailer or usher the volleyball team to that big game and, over the lifetime, the vehicle saves a pool of fuel in the process.

Aside from an idle shut-off feature, GM’s Two-Mode Hybrid System (also available in Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and their full-size pick-up trucks and soon-to-be available in the Saturn VUE), actually launches and propels the vehicle up to a speed of about 25 km/h. And that launch is where plenty of fuel is normally used, hence the big saving.

Although the drive through the Florida Keys is an engaging exercise in geography, engineering and history, we found the traffic on that Saturday morning a bit of a pain. But we were headed to the end of the road, the most southerly place in the continental United States. A mere 150 kilometres from Cuba, it is the place where the likes of Ernest Hemmingway and Robert Frost found inspiration to write immortal literature and in more recent times, Jimmy Buffet cranked out the likes of Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

It takes us almost five hours to reach Key West. There are moments of stunning beauty on the bridges that connect the keys, cruising over fluorescent turquoise seas wondering what trophies fishermen were pulling out of the depths.

But most of the drive is in bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go traffic where basking in the glory of the hybrid’s ability to launch us into battery mode much of the time was our main source of entertainment, along with reading the countless billboards and roadside signs.

I couldn’t get the lyrics of the 1970s Five Man Electrical Band’s rock anthem Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign off the replay loop in my brain “… blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”.

When we finally pull up to our hotel in Key West, I maneuver the Escalade around a posse of tanned blond clones strutting across the parking lot, clad in skimpy black beach dresses. Pandemonium rules at reception as a gazillion fresh-faced college students line up for rooms.

It’s spring break, and our weekend in old Key West promises to be a two-day infomercial of what our college-aged kids are up to on those trips south, a matter of ritual that “… like, absolutely everyone” goes on.

So we spent the rest of the day watching their antics and reading by the pool then head downtown to Duval Street and take in the scene as thousands of visitors make their escape from reality. We didn’t run into any famous writers and, although Jimmy Buffet was not wailing about cheeseburgers in paradise on a street corner, we managed our fair share of live music.

The next morning, as the folks at Turtle Kraals restaurant are clearing the cobwebs for another day in sun-drenched Key West, all I can think about is our stop-and-go drive back to Miami in the Cadillac Escalade Two-Mode Hybrid.

And if a six-pack of those frisky spring-break college students wanted a ride, or if someone needed a horse trailer hauled back to the Florida mainland, that would be just fine.

Because our ride is one hybrid that can do what a lot of people need a vehicle to do, and save plenty of fuel in the process.

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