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Hummer EV Should Conquer Off-Road Terrain With Electric Ease

Photo credit: GMC
Photo credit: GMC

From Autoweek

The Hummer EV looks to be more than just a poseur ute for suburban yuppies fighting for parking space domination at Trader Joe’s. From what we know of the coming electro-brute, it should be just as adept in the desert or on the Rubicon as it is in the Montessori school pickup lane.

“We had one goal for Hummer EV: Build the most capable factory truck—ever,” said Al Oppenheiser, former Camaro chief engineer-turned GMC Hummer EV chief engineer. “It’s an absolute off-road beast with a unique e4WD drive system that provides maneuverability unlike anything GM has ever offered before.”

Photo credit: GMC
Photo credit: GMC

Here are some of the features that promise to make the GMC Hummer EV what Hummer says will be “…the ultimate off-road EV supertruck:”

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  • It can crab walk! Just as the Rivian did its parlor trick of tank-tread donuts, the Hummer EV can turn all four of its wheels up to 10 degrees in either direction, either in phase or out of phase, which will allow it to crawl sort of sideways. Looks cool in the video.

  • Meaty tires on the Edition 1 will be 35-inch-OD Goodyear Wrangler All Territory MTs, 305/70R-18s all around. 37-inch wheels and tires will be a dealer option.

  • Drive modes include: Tour, Tow/Haul, Off-Road (which allows more yaw), and Terrain, which is the most aggressive. Drive modes change steering feel, suspension damping and ride height.

  • The powertrain consists of three independent motors—two in back, one in front—that together make “over 1000 hp” and that technically accurate (though still a touch misleading) 11,500 lb-ft of torque. Actual torque, before multiplication, is between 1000 and 1100 lb-ft. Each motor makes about 380 lb-ft of torque, though the front motor might make more than that.

  • Ride height adjusts almost eight inches in total. It can drop two inches from standard for ingress/egress, raise two inches from standard for off-roading, and can go another four inches above that for what’s known as “Extract Mode,” which it does at slow speeds for even more ground clearance.

  • In Extract Mode the approach angle is nearly 50 degrees. Breakover and departure and both “very good,” engineers told us. “If you can fit it on the trail, you’ll get it through.”

  • The Hummer EV is meant to be highly capable, “...like Moab stage 4 levels.”

  • First-year vehicles will come standard with rock sliders. In fact, the entire underside is protected, “From the very front bumper and all the way back past the rear drive unit using skid plates,” we were told. “And it’s flat, no prop shafts or diffs or anything to get in the way.”

  • You won’t need a spotter, necessarily, since there are as many as 18 cameras onboard showing everything from front and rear views to both the inner and outer sidewalls of each tire. There are even washers for the camera lenses.

  • It was benchmarked against the Ford F-150 Raptor and Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, two excellent starting points, and engineers are “keeping an eye on” the Bronco, Rivian and Tesla (presumably Model X)

  • The front differential is locking while the rear diff is “virtually locking” because it consists of two separate electric motors that can operate simultaneously or together as conditions require.

  • With a claimed 350 miles of range, it looks like you could easily cross the Mojave Desert, though off-road range will be less than on-road.

  • In addition to the Chevy Bolt’s One-Pedal Drive, wherein regen handles almost all the braking, the Hummer EV will have one separate throttle map just for off-roading that will essentially offer Hill Descent Control through regen.

  • The five-foot truck bed can be equipped with motorcycle chocks to hold your dirt bikes in place.

Photo credit: GMC
Photo credit: GMC

It’s not like you won’t be able to go four-wheeling. In fact, the Hummer EV sounds unstoppable. For my part, my first experience driving a Hummer was with the 8th Infantry’s Pathfinder Division in Mainz, Germany. That H1 wasn’t what you’d call refined, but it could go anywhere. The only thing that stopped me on that particular late-1980s press drive was an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, which I encountered on a narrow trail in the 8ID’s practice area. I backed up.

But since then, Hummers have always been off-road-capable. A drive in the last version of the H2 several years ago proved to be so rock-crawlingly competent that it looked like the H2 could pose a threat to the Wrangler. Now we have Wranglers, Broncos, Ram TRXs and Raptors, not to mention 4Runners, Land Rovers and AMG Gelandewagens. And that’s not counting all the SxSs. It’s not only a great time to be alive, but a great time to be in the market for an off-road vehicle.