Just when it seems safe to think of automotive hybrids as ephemeralized sylphs, along comes a hulking hybrid called the Chevrolet Silverado. This mobile oxymoron is a big American body-on-frame truck. It can roll into view with its Vortec V8 sounding, its four-speed automatics shifting, and its optional Quadrasteer four-wheel steering systems maneuvering about. The Silverado offers 57 cubic feet of cargo-box room, hauls up to 7,500 pounds of trailer weight, runs peripheral electric equipment on 42-volt power, and holds what must be the hybrid-vehicle record for low mileage at between 17 and 19 miles per gallon.

The regular Silverado is Chevy’s biggest pickup, and goes up against the Dodge Ram 1500, the Ford F-150, and the Toyota Tundra. The pickup comes in regular-, extended-, and crew cab-body styles, with either straight (Fleetside) and flare-fendered (Sportside) cargo box walls. Moreover, the Silverado’s rear-wheel, four-wheel, and all-wheel drive configurations can be further multiplied by the availability of a V6, two V8s, and both long and short cargo boxes. While model choice limits use of these features, there’s plainly enough variation here – on paper at least – to fell a forest.

And that’s without factoring in the $2,500 hybrid option.

For now, hybrid Silverados are only available as two- and four-wheel-drive extended-cab models sold through dealers in environmentally stringent California and the Pacific Northwest. Their gas-electric schemes use regenerative braking to capture motive energy, which then powers a compact array of batteries underneath the cabin’s floor. Using these, the pickup starts its engine by means of an electro-hydraulic system (there’s no cranking) that also runs its air conditioning and other on-board systems, allowing the truck to shut off its engine every time it waits for traffic to move or a light to change. Then, the mere removal of foot from brake prompts the Silverado’s V-8 to restart, allowing the truck to perform just as it would in stock form.

This system, while not saving impressive amounts of fuel (only 13% according to GM’s figures) in any one Silverado, nonetheless functions in the absence of a parallel electric motor and would therefore be easy to adapt to other vehicles. As such, it offers the promise of an annual national fuel savings in the millions of gallons. In a historic inaugural of one of its utilitarian features, GM recently dispatched 50 Silverados to hurricane-stricken Florida where the pickup’s battery-powered 20 amp bed-and-cab-mounted outlets ran chainsaws and other emergency equipment in the absence of functioning utility grids.

Here where the wrath of Hurricane Ivan can’t rouse itself beyond a wet and blowing day, the hybrid Silverado awaits – a black, $38,000 beast with canted headlamps, mesh grille, and chrome-belted fascia that bravely face veils of rain. In addition to the Fleetside pickup’s hybrid and four-wheel drive systems, it’s got such standard features as an independent front suspension, stainless steel exhaust, and four-wheel antilock brakes. A standard four-speed automatic and the larger, 5.3-liter V8 join with chromed wheels to reveal this Silverado to be a mid-range LS.

Inside, a utilitarian-looking dash replete with ergonomically placed instruments and gauges faces an expansive, leather-lined cabin. Here, you gain ready access to the Chevy’s rear seat area by opening a pair of rear hinged doors.

Enabled by its 295-horsepower eight and silken four-speed transmission, the test Silverado moves out swiftly – its car-like performance traits casting a layer of smoothness over the suspension’s tautness and recoil. The tester’s steering, while not graced with the optional Quadrasteer system, is acceptably precise, and its road noise not intrusive. In the wet, the LS exhibits a propensity for its rear wheels to spin, but a press of a dash-mounted button ended this when it brought the pickup’s automatic four-wheel drive system into play.

If only everything were that easy. Years ago, a tedious advertising job in Los Angeles had me retreating to the tiny desert town of Silverado, which then looked like a clapboard version of the shoebox cowboy camps I’d built as a boy. Ideally, I’d like to push the button that could have us returning to Silverado in its pre-faux-Victorian-McMansion days as a cowboy on horseback. However, in the absence of an actual pony, I suppose the eponymous Chevy Silverado – with its first-class power train, hybrid mileage, and competitive pricing – will have to do.