Yahoo Autos Check Out the 2022 GMC Hummer EV's Tech Heavy Whirring Bits
The last Hummer H2 rolled down production lines in 2009
The Hummer EV has three electric motors and makes over 1,000 lb-ft of torque
GM Claims 350 miles of range from the battery
The Hummer EV has large amounts of suspension adjustment
The AM General HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), or Humvee, was developed for the Military in the 1980s and became an iconic fixture in the U.S. as General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. rolled through the Iraq desert in one during the early 1990s Gulf War. Before we knew it, Arnold Schwarzenegger had one and GM bought naming rights and built the H2 from the Tahoe/Suburban platform, exuding exorbitant machismo and burning copious hydrocarbons.
Those days are long gone.
GM’s Hummer H2 last rolled down production lines in 2009 and the name synonymous with excess slowly disappeared into the horizon, sweating under the undeniably warming climate. And now the Hummer is back. GM rebirthed the Hummer name, this time as a GMC model rather than a brand. And it will emit exactly zero hydrocarbons into the air. GM thinks of it kind of like America’s first journey to the moon. You know—kind of a big deal.
Three electric motors and a floor full of batteries replace the big V8 and gas tank. Two of the three motors are mounted at the rear axle, both in the center, placed in such a way so they're somewhat similar to a differential, with half-shafts out to the wheels. The third motor mounts in the center of the front axle. All three are about the same size and produce more or less 380 lb-ft of torque.
Before heading to the wheels, the front motor spins a single drive down gear with a 13.1:1 ratio gear and an electronically locking front differential. The rear motors spin 10:1 gears and, because each wheel has a motor, it has no diff. But through software, the drive can mimic a locking diff with torque vectoring or an open diff or whatever it wants.
And while GM’s claim of 11,500 lb-ft of torque is a bit silly, as it's wheel torque, which is inflated compared to what we’re used to seeing, it’s more legitimate than you might think. Because you have one-speed gears, that’s the torque you have at all times. In multiple gear transmissions, you have big torque in first gear, lower in second, and so on and so forth. Regardless, total torque from the motors is still impressive. GM claims between 1,000 and 1,100 lb-ft before it reaches the torque multiplying transmissions.