Massive fuel economy improvement over gas models
Tow capacity up to 8,200 lbs
Wanting a new diesel 2021 Chevrolet Suburban or Tahoe, but wondering about 4×4 fuel economy and how much you can tow? The official figures are out and the answers are that you can tow a whole lot and that it’s not going to use all that much diesel, relatively speaking, at least.
While rear-drive 3.0L Duramax inline-six fuel economy was estimated a few months back, we’ll remind you that the numbers are 21 mpg city, 28 highway for the 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe and 21/27 for the 2021 Duramax diesel Suburban. The extra drag and weight of the 4×4 models does little to hurt those ratings and the Tahoe gets an EPA estimated 20/26 while the Suburban 4×4 gets the same figure as the Tahoe. In metric, that’s 11.2 L/100 km city, 8.4 highway for 2WD Tahoe, 11.2/8.7 for 2WD ‘Burbs, and 11.8/9.0 for the 4x4s.
Compare those figures with 15.3/12.4 city/highway for 4×4 Suburban and 14.8/11.8 for 4×4 Chevrolet Tahoe with the 5.3L V8 and it’s not hard to see that the 277 hp, 460 lb-ft diesel can save some serious scratch over the gas engines at the fuel pumps. For comparison, the diesel ratings are better than the smaller Traverse and nearly beat the Chevrolet Equinox 2.0 on the highway
Then when it’s time to tow, one of the big reasons for buying these big SUVs, the figures still impress. The 2WD Tahoe with the 3.0L diesel can tow up to 8,200 lbs with a max payload of 1,717 lbs. The 2021 Suburban diesel can tow 8,000 lbs with a max payload of 1,625 lbs. That’s just 200 lbs less than the towing for each than the maximum they can handle with a gas V8, or near enough as makes no difference.
Duramax-powered full-size SUVs will get a standard exhaust brake that works in tow-haul mode for extra driver confidence, and both magnetic ride control and four-corner air ride adaptive suspension will be offered. Deliveries of the dieselburb and diesel Tahoe are expected to start by end of year.
