There is a time and a place for heavy duty pickups, humvees, and the huge variety of SUVs, but when I see the freeway crawling along at 20mph and it seems like every other vehicle is a monster vehicle, I have to wonder at the sanity of some people.
Its a great thing to make vehicles more efficient, but at least in the cities, most of the larger vehicles that are used 99% of the time for commuting would be better replaced with something (anything) smaller. I hope GM is going to make the smaller vehicles into hybrids as well.

Even with a 25% improvement they are still not a good solution to most problems. Most of the trucks and SUV's I see are used just for transportation. It's a lot of metal to be hauling around just for the potential of actually being able to haul something occasionally.
Yes there are some cases where they are used to haul stuff a majority of the time. In those cases they make sense.
Many people are fear stricken and drive them as defensive objects thinking all that mass will protect them in case of crash.
So the two biggest reasons why people drive them are fear and the potential to haul something. We all pay a high price for their choices.

"GM says the 2009 GMC Sierra hybrid gets a 25 percent improvement in fuel economy without compromising performance."

So instead of getting 12mpg in the city,... this SUV gets 16mpg. So instead of costing (assuming $3/gallon gas) $0.25/mile to drive, it cost 'only' $0.19/mile to drive? And you have to buy the added cost of the batteries.

Unless one uses one of these for work, or hauling loads, how is this going to be cost effective?

That - and shouldn't we be less concerned about loss of performance (at least for those of us NOT measuring our penis size by the size of our cars) than cost, and long-term costs of operating?

Or is that too logical?

I'm old enough to remember when a pickup truck was utilitarian vehicle driven only by farmers and construction workers. That was before they became a fashion statement.

So now instead of getting 10 miles to 1 gallon of gas your going to 10 miles for every battery.

The one PU they showed on TV looks like Chrysler 300 made into a Ute.

Don't be fooled. GM uses hybrid technology not to decrease gas usage but to increase power at the same fuel efficiency.
Big deal.

A Green Guzzler.

I'd LOVE to be able to buy a utility vehicle that's a hybrid or - better yet - all electric. I need a 4-wheel drive so I can get feed and poultry up to the barn, and I like the SUV-type vehicle because I can get 6 of my 8 dogs (or 9 of my 14 cats) to the vet all at once. Something that can tow 6100 pounds would let me get my horses around, too.

Right now, our work vehicles are a Nissan 4wd SUV (16 mpg, 18 on a good day, 22 tops) and a Dodge Ram (better on gas, but I don't drive it much). I'd trade in my Nissan for a decent hybrid any day, as long as the new one could do the same farm-type work as the Nissan.

Put in a diesel engine and you'd see some better results...

Efficiency is a function of compression ratio, 12:1 at best in a gas engine, 18:1 to 22:1 in a diesel engine.

Come on GM, get real!

This reminds me of GM's response to the fuel crisis of the mid 70's. They jumped on the diesel bandwagon. Those trucks were pure crap. I doubt they've learned anything from that lesson.

'A low-slung, muscular utility vehicle'. How about a 1-ton 2WD flatbed with a slope-nose aero hood and good overdrive, and figure out how to strip about 500 pounds of body weight out of it? You know, a 'work truck'. These Uncle Pimpy wagons will never see a speck of dirt in their lifetimes...they'll put the blue lights on em or something...plus, here's a question for you, how much will these 'utility' vehicles really get utilized? Not much. Taxpayer's going to buy a lot of em though, that's my crystal-ball forecast.