The GMC Hummer EV is a lithium-powered ode to (in-)glorious excess
Is it simply another American ode to glorious excess, albeit writ electric? Lord knows, The General knows all about those, from 1930s Cadillacs with 16 pistons to modern Silverado Crew Cabs that stretch 6,139-millimetres stem-to-stern. Throw in Suburbans and Yukon XLs and General Motors has produced pretty much every species of humungous four-wheeler including what is, of course, the spiritual predecessor of this fantastic beast, AM General’s Humvee.
If that’s not it, maybe it’s some sort of hillbilly halo vehicle? I mean the Goodyear Wrangler LT305/70R18s on my triple-motor sport utility version certainly looked ready for Copperhead Road. And with 830 horsepower underhood — down from the even 1,000-hp the tri-motor truck version boasts — it’ll surely outrun revenuers. And OMG, the inside is a mass of bright lights and swaddling leather, both sure to elicit much commotion from the attention-deficit-disordered backwoods baron. And with the MSRP for my 3X SUV starting at $144,098 and numerous upgrades taking it to $182,588, the owner surely would advertise himself as a successful ‘shiner.
So Andrew, I am more than a little confused. Have you got an answer for the all-important why?
If so, mission accomplished. From the massive battery pack to the WTF mode — that’s Watts To Freedom, by the way — and from the all-wheel steering to the spectacular Bose sound system, the Hummer EV is a rolling testament to what GM engineers and designers can pull off if the guard rails are removed. Like the Ford Lightning, which looks and has the same road presence as the gas-powered F-150, the all-electric Hummer pays respectful homage to its ICE forebearer. Personally, I really like the design of the Hummer EV. It’s brash and brawny but not in a bulky sort of way, which certainly could have been the result of this clean-sheet design.
And as you alluded to, the cabin is as palatial as it is spacious, that flat-floor architecture creating huge leg room in the second row and the high roofline provides NBA-big-man headroom. Speaking of that roof, there are four separate panels that can be taken out, allowing you to customize the open roof in a number of ways. I also love the pistol-grip shifter, something not often found in an EV, and storage space in the cabin is plentiful. The frunk, too, is massive.
DB: EVKX.net, which has measured charging performance for pretty much every electric vehicle produced for North America, reckons that the 170-kWh Hummer peaks at a 345 kilowatts and averages no less than 181 kW when charging from 10% to 80% SoC. That 70% recharge would take 44 minutes and gain you 240 kilometres if you could replicate EVKX‘s testing results. That’s not especially horrible, though if you were on a very long, multi-stop road trip, you’d essentially have to stop for 45 minutes every two hours. According to EVKX, however, optimum charging stops right at the 65% mark, which takes 23 minutes to reach. After that, the charging rate drops precipitously. That would mean, if you were looking for minimum time spent charging on a long trip, you’d drive only 1.5 hours at a time, but you’d cut your charging downtime by half.
Of course, that supposes there are high-tech 350-kW chargers on your route at evenly spaced one- or two-hour intervals. Unfortunately, as anyone who’s done a road trip in an EV, they are few and far between. Much more common, at least in my experience, is averaging somewhere between 50-kW (a bank of 125-kW chargers with all stations occupied) and 100-kW (a pair of 125-kW chargers, but I was the only one sucking back electrons).
In the latter case, you’re looking at about 1.5 hours to get that 70%, 240-km recharge. In the former case, well, I suspect that, even the most rabid EVer would have given up hope. For the record, every hour of 50-kW charging would add about 100 kilometres of range at my highway efficiency rate.
AM: Well, I certainly find it difficult to pass a roadside hamburger joint without stopping. But yes, DC fast-chargers are key when road tripping in the Hummer EV. And, of course, so is a Level 2 charger in your garage. But that’s the case for all electric vehicles, as home charging takes much of the fuss and anxiety out of going all-electric. And with Tesla opening up its charging network to all automakers, future Hummer EVs — if GMC determines the model has staying power — will be equipped with NACS ports.
So, if I still can’t quite answer the question of why, I can take a stab at what. As a technological marvel, and example of what The General can do when it lets its engineers imagination run wild, the electrified Hummer is an absolute marvel. As the future of electric vehicles, not so much.
Despite a huge — nay, humungous — gee-whiz factor, if this is the future of full-sized, battery-powered trucks and SUVs, our electrification mandates are going to need to include hybrids.
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