[LINK] The Hummer EV

[Stephen Loosley]

“I test-drove the all-electric Hummer ..”

Oliver Milman in Phoenix, Arizona Thu 7 Apr 2022 23.00 AEST https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/07/electric-hummer-vehicles-climate-crisis


It is the weight of an elephant, can move like a crab and in a previous life was reviled by environmentalists ..

The electric resurrection of the Hummer, first announced in 2020, has produced a vehicle that does not emit the carbon pollution that overheats the planet ..

But in many ways it still pushes the boundaries of absurdity.

The vehicle weighs more than 4.5 tons, a bulk closer to that of a small bulldozer than the sort of cars typically seen on American streets a decade or so ago.

The huge Ultium battery that powers the vehicle is nearly 3,000lb, about the same as two grand pianos. The wheels look like they could traverse Mars.

The big display panel in the chunky interior of the Hummer does, indeed, show a graphic of the car on Mars when you put it in its off-road mode. Most trips are on roads, of course – almost half of car journeys in US cities are three miles or less.

The price of the first Hummer EV iteration – subsequent models will be cheaper – is a princely $110,000. About 66,000 people have put in an order for a pickup or SUV version of the Hummer and while GM says most have never owned an EV before, many are also simply adding it as a second or third vehicle.

“It’s huge, it’s terribly expensive and it doesn’t fit every lifestyle,” said Carla Bailo, chief executive of the Center for Automotive Research. “GM won’t overproduce it because there’s a limited base of people who will want it.”

On its own terms, however, the Hummer EV is an adroit piece of engineering. Fully charged, the battery will propel the vehicle 329 miles before a top-up is needed. The Hummer is smoothly powerful in rocky terrain, with the test drive showcasing its ability to effortlessly traverse plunging, pitted trails in the cacti-dotted desert west of Phoenix.

The task is aided by a wealth of technology – the Hummer has 18 different camera angles from below and around the vehicle you can view via the screen, as well as an innovation called “crabwalk”, where each of the tires are set at a 10-degree angle to allow for a sort of sliding, diagonal movement to manoeuvre away from precipitous edges of tracks.

On the flat there is raw pace, too, with the instant response of electric acceleration hurling the Hummer forward from a standstill to 60mph in three seconds, a speed that can cause passengers and drivers alike to emit a yelp of surprise.

Inside, the Hummer EV is more comfortable than the original and features designs of the moon’s topography – a nod to GM’s role in creating a lunar-roving buggy, which of course was electric – but it maintains a certain butch aesthetic.

This points to the Hummer’s broader significance – a demonstration that electric vehicles can now provide the sheer power, size and sensibilities that US buyers cherish, even if they still command only a small fraction of sales.

“What we wanted to do is get a truck buyer who would never buy an EV in his life, or never even think about it,” said Brian Malczewski, a chief exterior designer of the new Hummer.

“We’re hoping to get, finally, the truck buyers who may be the hardest people to get into this space. This is the perfect conduit for that, I think.”

GM is not alone in attempting this. Ford has announced an electric version of its F-150 truck, which has been the best-selling vehicle in America since Ronald Reagan was president, Tesla has its much-hyped Cybertruck and newcomers such as Rivian have garnered plenty of attention. At a different end of the market, you will even be able to get an electric Maserati this year, even if the price, like many EVs, is eye-watering.

“I think electric power trains for heavier work trucks, SUVs and pickups, like the Hummer, will be amazing,” said Chris Gearhart, director of NREL’s Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences.

“The torque profile of an electric motor will give these vehicles a lot of towing power, and the potential for using some of the electrical power in the batteries to directly power worksites and provide backup power could make these vehicles incredibly useful.”

While EV options are expanding, it’s still unclear whether production levels, and sales, will ramp up with the urgency of the climate crisis.

GM has vowed to sell 1m EVs in 2025 before going all-electric a decade later but delivered only 26 electric cars to customers in the final quarter of last year. Toyota wants to sell 3.5m EVs annually by 2030 but currently has none for sale in the US.

Public charging infrastructure, meanwhile, remains spotty across the US and Biden’s attempt to fund 500,000 new chargers has yet to be fulfilled by Congress.

Phasing out gasoline cars by 2035, which the US must do if it is reach net zero emissions by 2050 and help avoid climate catastrophe, remains a steep challenge but several experts say replacing them with similar electric alternatives will be the quickest, and most pragmatic, way of slashing emissions from car-dominated American life.

“EVs are by far the best and most economic way to reduce greenhouse gases in transportation,” said Sperling.

He added that better public transport, cycle paths and denser housing would be beneficial too but these actions are “far less important for reducing greenhouse gases, at lease in the US and other affluent car-centric countries”.

Others argue for a more fundamental change that moves people out of cars altogether, rather than simply replacing one type of large vehicle with another.

Last month, Harvey Miller was crossing the road in Columbus, Ohio, when he was knocked to the ground by an SUV, leaving him bruised.

“The Hummer scares me — it’s massive and not compatible with life in cities”  said Harvey Miller

Miller was walking home from Ohio State University’s campus where, ironically, he teaches classes on transportation safety and urban mobility.

SUVs are far more likely to kill pedestrians than cars, research has found, due to blind spots from the elevated seating position and bulky front ends that strike people high in the torso and head rather than lower in the body.

“The Hummer scares me – it’s massive and not compatible with life in cities,” Miller said, adding that SUVs also can be dangerous. “These large vehicles use up a lot of space and are expensive. I’m disappointed that Biden is championing them and not other forms of mobility, such as walking and biking infrastructure. Cars should fill in the niches for some people, not be the default.

--