A California company has chopped a Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid in half and added more than 13 feet of steel, several flat-screen TVs and two fiber-optic illuminated cocktail bars to create what's believed to be the world's first gas-electric SUV limo.
One might look at the stretched Tahoe hybrid and ask, "Why?" LimeLite Coachworks would say, "Because gas is so freakin' expensive." LimeLite has been stretching Hummers, Escalades and other vehicles for six years and says rising fuel prices have the limo industry taking a serious look at hybrids for the same reason everyone else is – they burn a lot less gas.
LimeLite's Mike Williams tells HybridCars.com the hybrid Tahoe gets 80 percent better fuel economy than conventional SUV limos, which apparently was enough to get ZBest Limos of Baltimore to pony up $99,900 for the Tahoe before it was even done.
The company says stretching the hybrid by 160 inches was a piece of cake and the next one might be stretched 220. Working around the vehicle's 300-volt drivetrain wasn't too tough, and LimeLite says the batteries power the fiber optic piping, four flat-screen TVs, two lasers, strobe lights and two bars with illuminated glassware and decanters. The interior is so over-the-top it makes the psychedelic interior Citroen put in the Hypnos look understated.
Photos by LimeLite Coachworks.
