The shape of this thing reminds me of one of those desktop calculator apps that have on-screen number keys. Physical calculators need number keys, or else there’s no way to enter numbers, but a device with a keyboard doesn’t need a bunch of number keys that no one is ever going to click on. They’re just decoration, and there’s no reason to add them aside from telling people “hey, this is a calculator”.<p>Likewise a vehicle like the electric Hummer (or the Rivian truck and SUV) doesn’t need that visibility- and pedestrian-killing codpiece that they have mounted over the electric drivetrain (which likely doesn’t extend beyond the envelope of the wheel wells). There’s no need for it except to tell people “hey, this is a truck”. Except in this case it’s a design element that is literally killing an increasing number of people every year[1], not just a bit of wasted screen real estate.<p>I really hope this design language eventually goes the way of way of the Landau[2], either by way of some forward-thinking EV designer who doesn’t keep copying the mistakes of ICE vehicles, or that people finally wake up to how utterly ridiculous these vehicles look[3], or by way of some kind of minimal standards around forward visibility[4] and pedestrian injury potential.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.codot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-pulse/2019/march-2019/death-on-foot-americas-love-of-suvs-is-killing-pedestrians" rel="nofollow">https://www.codot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-pulse/2019/march...</a>
[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landau_(automobile)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landau_(automobile)</a>
[3] <a href="https://twitter.com/verge/status/1318208829675491329" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/verge/status/1318208829675491329</a>
[4] <a href="https://twitter.com/ItsMcMikeTime/status/1296801390862446597?s=20" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/ItsMcMikeTime/status/1296801390862446597...</a>
> The brawny truck can “crab walk” sideways on rough terrain using its four-wheel steering system, and has a “Watts to Freedom” mode that accelerates the truck to 60 miles per hour (97 kph) in 3 seconds.<p>I am all about electrification but as a cyclist and pedestrian, I really don't want to be around 3000kg vehicles that can accelerate this fast.
Anyone who has tried to purchase anything from GM that wasn't a truck or an econobox knows that they never make enough cars that people actually want to buy (or more accurately, cars the <i>I</i> want to buy). So I'm not surprised GM sold out of e-Hummers, they're probably making all of six of them.<p>I'm sure there's some MBA-speak that explains it, like keep supply low on halo vehicles to make the overall GM brand seem appealing. But the end result has been that I've owned one GM car about 30 years ago (Geo Prizm), and only because my parents worked for GM and got a substantial discount. Since then, I've just kind of given up on them. Even if they make something I like, they won't make enough of them.
To me, the big story about the Cybertruck has always been that it's a Tesla that's being launched price competitive with equivalent ICE vehicles. A 2WD Tundra or F150 with King Cab style 4 doors is only a couple grand less than the Cybertruck. A year of gas savings puts you ahead of the game in the Cybertruck.<p>With the Hummer at $110,000? All that goes out the door. You can buy a loaded to the gills gas guzzler and pay for 10 years of gas and still have $10,000 in the bank.<p>Ultimately the Cybertruck is the sort of EV which <i>might</i> hit mass adoption. The price is decent, Tesla has the brand to carry it, so long as the truck delivers on it's promises, I can see the Cybertruck being a huge hit. The Hummer is destined to ship a few thousand in the first couple years, then gather dust in showrooms.
The Hummer brand signals military machismo with emphasis on isolationist individualism and little to no regard for the environment.<p>An electric Hummer counters that brand signaling in unexpected and, for me, surprisingly welcome ways. Converting a large gallons-to-the-mile ICE to an emissions-free electric drive train shows a willingness to cannibalize a previously successful marketing brand with a more responsible offering.<p>Ideally, the EV Hummer would offer comparable or better performance than the ICE, though achieving such will likely take further research and investment.<p>Such manufacturing and marketing moves, though late in coming, are laudable and I sincerely hope such companies blow through their wildest sales projections in the EV market.
I live near Beverly Hills. 1/2 of cars are here are either a Mercedes G-Class, Range Rover, Porcshe Cayenne or BMW X6.<p>The EV Hummer car will sell like hotcakes here. It achieves it's main goal of looking cool and distinct from the other cars here, not to mention it can use EV parking spots.
One thing people aren't talking enough about is, the charging.<p>A 200kwh battery that only gets 300mi of range is TERRIBLE. Especially if they are making the numbers pretty like Tesla does.
Even the fastest at home charger you can buy will take ~22 hours to charge the vehicle, or more like 18 hours if you do standard 20% to 80% charging. If you daily drive this thing 300 miles a week, you will need to charge it for almost an entire day of that week. Let's take 40 miles a day as an example, it will need a charge by Saturday, and it will basically charge all the way until late Sunday...<p>The 800v charger they are referencing has no network, I cannot even find one in the entire state of Florida. This thing is years out from being practical, where as a Tesla is practical today.
Meanwhile Tesla just keeps taking pre-orders regardless of their production projections for next year. Tesla may be afraid to admit to the public how many pre-orders they've actually taken.<p>> The number is "at least 200,000." Musk made the comment during an interview with Automotive News on Sunday, and it's a significantly lower figure than the running total compiled by a crowdsourced list. Fans keeping track of their order numbers estimated that there have been approximately 727,000 reservations for the electric pickup truck.<p>source: <a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-tesla-cybertruck-reservations/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-tesla-cybertruc...</a>
If you want to know about specs, Ars Technica has a more informative article. <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/10/american-excess-is-back-with-the-1000hp-2022-gmc-hummer-ev-truck/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/10/american-excess-is-back...</a>
Citroen makes a 25k electric vehicle, with a $25/mo. lease, where you have an instrument panel you put your mobile, and sized from just 2 people.<p>GM decides 105k just short of an Escalade, prolly seats 6-8.<p>And I'm sure I will see them here in NY/Long Island, and just like every other car on the road, you'll see one person behind the wheel.
This car is more about rebranding GM as an electric vehicle company. Even if they only break even, it's an extremely inexpensive PR campaign to change what people are talking about when they talk about GM.
"start production in the fall of 2021" So "first year" is 2-3 months?<p>[edit] Thanks for the responses reg models years vs calendar years. Makes sense.
Great on paper, but have you <i>seen</i> this thing? It looks like a Cybertruck and a Jeep JK had a baby, then a 2021 Ford Bronco and a Delorean had a baby. Then the kids grew up and got married to each other and gave birth to this EV monstrosity.
Projecting from GM Sierra production in a year, and a comment elsewhere that the Edition 1 reserve was one year's production, this could be as many as 200 thousand Hummer EV Edition 1, each at $112K per.<p>To put this in perspective, there are perhaps 171,670 homeless families in America, according to <a href="https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-2020/" rel="nofollow">https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...</a>.<p>That means each person who reserved an Edition 1 could have bought a $30k car instead and the rest of the money could have bought a house for a homeless, resulting in no homeless families in our country. We need to get our priorities straight.<p>I am all for EVs, but we need them mandated as the norm, not luxury status symbols that cost as much as a house. When they are mandated and gas models aren't sold then manufacturers will make cheaper models to meet the market's demand.