GMC announces new Hummer EV
GMC has announced that it has reinvented its iconic Hummer as an all-electric, 1,000-horsepower, $100,000-plus “supertruck”. According to a recent statement, the company sees the off-road-ready vehicle’s advanced quick-charging capabilities and range as the answer to “negative baggage” associated with the former gas-guzzling Hummer brand image.
“From a market acceptance point of view, the EV [capabilities] really takes away any negative baggage from the Hummer name,” said Phil Brook, GMC’s vice-president of marketing, speaking at a virtual media information session following the Hummer EV’s public debut.
Its impressively long, 560-plus-kilometre estimated range and quiet, emission-free powertrains are certainly strong Hummer selling points – or will be in the fall of 2022, when the GMC Hummer EV 3x is set to arrive in Canada (about a year after a limited-release Hummer EV Edition 1 starts production and delivery in the United States). When it arrives in Canada, it will come as a six-figure EV aimed at affluent buyers drawn to the appeal of owning the most “rugged” in a growing field of new electric pickups.
The Hummer’s Ultium battery — the largest member of a battery family that is a cornerstone of GM’s entire new EV strategy — will offer an estimated 200 kWh of energy to achieve its promised 560-plus kilometres of range. Its standard 400-volt capacity can also be doubled to 800-volts for the larger sandwich-style battery configuration that uses a unique system to provide faster quick charging (160 kilometres of range in 10 minutes, according to GM).
Edition 1 models open to American buyers sold out in an hour, according to a GM spokesperson, however sales in Canada will begin when the Hummer EV 3x model arrives in both countries in late 2022.
According to GM, the Hummer’s 24-module battery system will be able to charge at up to 350 kW for top models. These versions will also offer what GM calls a “Watts to Freedom” acceleration mode (Hummer’s version of Tesla’s “Ludicrous” mode). Successive models — with slightly more modest ranges, power and price tags — will also be added in 2023 and 2024.
Photo : GMC
