Taken on face value, the least likely segment to make a full electric transition would be those vehicles aimed at remote off-road four-wheel-driving. And yet, mechanically at least, the advantages afforded by electric motors in terms of grip, drive precision, and torque on demand mean an electric 4WD has the potential to perform incredibly well off-road.
2022 GMC Hummer EV
While the theoretical advantages of electric propulsion for off-roading are clear, the tyranny of distance (in the outback) remains. Will those two conflicting ideologies ever converge? A quick drive in the 2022 GMC Hummer EV at General Motors’s proving ground outside Detroit might go some way to providing an answer.
First things first. We’re unlikely to get the Hummer EV in Australia – boo – but it does illustrate the extent to which a manufacturer like GM is willing to think outside the square, and bring to life an electric platform in a segment that would typically be reluctant to embrace just that.
It’s a big investment, too, $35 billion towards a planned one million EV sales by 2025, with the release of no less than 30 models in the next few years. The electric Silverado is one of those models, and given we can currently buy a remanufactured RHD Silverado in Australia, that one makes real sense for our market.
Secondly, despite its formidable capability off-road, in the States at least, it’s unlikely that too many Hummer EVs will head into truly remote areas off the grid. I make that point to firmly establish that I’m not driving the Hummer EV with a view to crossing the Simpson Desert, exploring the tip of Cape York, or the remote corners of Western Australia.
Off-road-focused it might be in the US, I suspect most Hummer EVs will ply their trade around town. And, therefore, close to available charging infrastructure.
Thirdly, this Hummer EV ain’t cheap. Not even in its home market. With the flagship Edition 1 from $US111,000, this is a high-end product for a deep-pocketed buyer. At the time of writing, that’s a whopping $165,000 Aussie dollars. So even if it were available here, not too many of you would be buying one.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the new Hummer EV lies beneath the skin in the form of GM’s all-new 24-module battery platform called Ultium. The reason it’s so impressive is that it also underpins the Cadillac Lyriq (which we’ll cover at Drive soon), illustrating the versatility of the brave new world of EV-specific platforms. Hummer gets one motor up front, two motors in the rear, and cleverly arranged vertical cell modules to offer a practical 530km claimed range.
The Hummer isn’t light (4300kg give or take) and 600kg of that total heft belongs to the 200kWh battery pack itself. The performance figures quoted by GM are so stratospheric as to be comical – 1000hp translates to 745kW in our language, and the torque figure requires a couple of reads – 2033Nm. Does it feel as fast as the 3.1-second 0–100km/h claim? Yep. It’s a rocket ship in a straight line.
The tech continues to pile up with an 800-volt electrical system that allows for up to 350kW fast charging. That means you can pump 160km of range into the battery pack in 10 minutes under ideal circumstances. More than enough to get back on the road and on the way home in other words.
The Hummer EV has some party tricks up its sleeve beyond being simply rapid. It keeps piling on speed with the same relentless urge any fast EV can, but there’s a limit to how practical that is in a vehicle of this physical size and heft anyway. And, we need to stop talking about how fast EVs are, and start focusing on how practical they are.
The feature that is hardest to get your head around from behind the wheel is the way it can crab-walk down the road. While it might sound gimmicky at first, think of an off-road situation where you’re stuck in a weird rut, and the safest way to edge out of the situation you’re in would be to drive the vehicle out on a 45-degree angle effectively sideways. The Hummer EV can do just that, and do it with ease.
It’s quite disconcerting from behind the wheel the first time you try it, and it’s just one example of what the lack of EV complexity can bring to the four-wheel-drive table.
The all-wheel steering, which allows for the weirdo crab walk, also cuts the Hummer’s pirouette down by two metres, delivering a turning circle that could embarrass a small city car. It’s impressive stuff in the real world when you’re manoeuvring something so bulky with such ease.
The advantages of carefully metering drive to individual tyres to suit the needs of the terrain are obvious. Hummer EV can be optioned with adjustable air suspension and proper bash plate protection, meaning it has incredible ability off-road.
Our short test drive was almost entirely off-road. Clambering up a loose rock climb, the Hummer EV made light work of what was a technical climb, with precise drive and beautiful accelerator pedal precision. GM tells us it can ford water with the best of them, and do it safely. We didn’t test that claim during our drive.
You get selectable drive modes, front e-lockers, virtual rear lockers, extensive wheel articulation, and approach/departure angles that will be useful in any off-road situation, so it’s little surprise the Hummer EV is as capable off-road as it is. After all, with the Hummer nameplate, you’d expect nothing less.
The cabin, strangely enough, feels almost too luxurious for the robust performance and brutalist exterior. The screens, the trim, the seat designs, and the arrangement of the switchgear all have a premium air about them, and go some way to softening the asking price blow.
There’s a 13.4-inch central infotainment screen, which controls much of the drive functionality as well as the usual audio and satellite navigation systems. There’s a 12.3-inch configurable digital driver’s display, and the graphics have been fine-tuned by gaming company Epic Games. Seems fitting doesn’t it? There’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, too, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity.
The Hummer EV looks and feels like a Hummer. It behaves like one off-road, too, although no Hummer was ever this fast in a straight line off the mark. Where it surprises is with the quality of its usable technology, and the way in which the electric drive system works in rough terrain off-road. I can picture one working its way across the Simpson Desert, but I’m not sure how or where you’ll charge it.
I still think remote off-road touring remains the most difficult frontier for the EV movement to conquer. That and load hauling or towing, of course. However, as a rolling example of what an electric vehicle is capable of off-road with a full charge on board, the Hummer EV is supremely capable. I just think it’s going to be a long time before we see EVs traversing the remote corners of our huge continent.
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