General Motors’ move to electric pickups—and its large-scale shift of its entire lineup to electric vehicles–is starting with a 1,000-hp supertruck packing enough batteries for a 350-mile range. The 2022 GMC Hummer EV represents the top of the electric pickup lineup, and every model comes with all of the technology GM can throw at its new trucks.
However, the Hummer EV Edition 1’s platform, motors, batteries, and other technologies will provide the basis for a line of electric pickups from GMC and Chevrolet, as well as lesser versions of the Hummer EV.
“My former life was the Camaro chief of the fifth and sixth gen. I always wanted to bring out the high-horsepower stuff first. Get the halo vehicle out there. People need to see this. The knockout punch first. We didn’t do that,” Hummer EV chief engineer Al Oppenheiser told Green Car Reports at a drive of prototype Hummer EV Edition 1 models, recalling the different approach GM applied to its pony car
“This is such an important vehicle to the electric truck architecture, the Ultium battery future, transforming the company into an EV company, that we had to come out with the knockout punch first,” Oppenheiser said. “So we got a three-motor, 1,000-horsepower, 24-module pack (truck) with the full off-road capability. Everything’s standard, everything comes one way first.
2022 GMC Hummer EV prototype, engineering drive, September 2022 at the Milford Proving Grounds
Every 2022 GMC Hummer EV is an Edition 1 model priced at $112,595. In addition to the equipment Oppenheiser mentioned, they all come with air suspension, adaptive dampers, rear-wheel steering, five underbody skid plates, cameras that enable 18 different views, and knobby Goodyear Territory MT tires. The Edition 1 is built with all the power and all the off-road capability.
Lesser versions of the Hummer EV pickup will follow, as will the Hummer EV SUV, the electric Chevy Silverado, and the electric GMC Sierra.
The Hummer EV’s component set will scale down to create more affordable electric pickups.
“We’re going to basically have our trim levels established by the number of modules or range,” Oppenheiser said. “When you proliferate more you’re downscaling from the full monty. It’s actually less complex, it’s less engineering to do. It’s easier to go backwards than to keep building up.”
Ultium EV platform - GMC Hummer EV
The Hummer EV Edition 1 has three 255-kw (341-hp) motors, two on the rear axle and one up front, to create 1,000 hp and 1,200 lb-ft of torque. The Ultium motor lineup also includes 180-kw (241-hp) and 62-kw (83-hp) electric motors.
The launch model also uses a dual-stack, 24-module battery pack that holds 200 kwh of energy. Oppenheiser said double-layer 16- and 20-module Ultium battery packs will also be available for trucks, and the Cadillac Lyriq SUV will have a single-layer 12-module pack.
The Ultium modules will fit into all of the GM EV architecture electric vehicles, and the vehicle needs will determine the number of modules.
The Hummer EV also debuts a new electric vehicle platform that isn’t a skateboard, a unibody, or a body-on-frame structure, but more like a combination of the three. Oppenheiser calls it a body-frame-integrated structure. It starts with upper and lower rectangular structure plates that protect the battery. Extruded aluminum rockers cover the sides of the battery to protect against side intrusions. Front and rear cradles attach to this midstructure to take a form similar to an electric skateboard, but the body’s top hat—the area above that platform “sandwich”—is also structural.
2022 GMC Hummer EV prototype, engineering drive, September 2022 at the Milford Proving Grounds
Oppenheiser said GM didn’t go with a body-on-frame platform like Ford is planning for the F-150 Lightning because of packaging and power requirements.
“With a body-on-frame, especially if you commonize with our full-size trucks, you’re limiting cross width, so if you want to get modules in there to get range you’re building up. That’s a bad thing from a CG (center of gravity) standpoint or you compromise range by only being able to package what’s within the frame rails,” Oppenheiser said. “We started out by building the vehicle around the size of the battery pack that we wanted in the vehicle. “
The Hummer SUV will be the second variant on this platform and the Silverado will be the third.
Oppenheiser said weight won’t be an issue for the EV Silverado and Sierra despite the fact that the Hummer EV Edition 1 weighs more than 9,000 lb.
General Motors Ultium batteries
“Our Ultium battery already has a lifecycle for the same or more energy in less mass, less packaging space,” he said. “We can manage trade-offs with the modules, we can manage trade-offs with lightweight materials if we need a lightweight model. It’s all in the architecture.”
Weight may be an issue even if Oppenheiser says it’s not, but the use of electric motors is an advantage, according to the man behind so many V-8-powered Camaros.
“You can make the motors do anything. You can tune so you can have a Terrain mode throttle map that gradually increases the torque applied from the motor so you don’t get too much velocity, too much wheel movement,” Oppenheiser explained.
2022 GMC Hummer EV prototype, engineering drive, September 2022 at the Milford Proving Grounds
I tested that throttle map at the prototype drive. The Hummer EV has two off-road modes: Off-Road, which is like other off-roaders’ Sand modes and is meant for high-speed off-roading, and Terrain, which is like a 4Lo mode for low-speed crawling. Hummer had journalists drive the truck over an outcropping of rocks in Terrain mode, and the throttle allowed a lot of minute control to creep over large rocks without applying too much torque too quickly that would have likely caused the vehicle to bottom out despite 11.9 inches of ground clearance.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Watts To Freedom program that can be accessed through the vehicle’s 13.4-inch center touchscreen. It uses the same throttle mapping as the Adrenaline setting drivers can choose in MyMode, which is like other automakers’ Individual or Custom modes. Watts To Freedom also lowers the air suspension 3.5 inches from the standard 10.1-inch ground clearance, enables launch control, and puts on a show of vibrations, lights, and sounds.
2022 GMC Hummer EV Watts to Freedom launch - video
2022 GMC Hummer EV Watts to Freedom launch - video
2022 GMC Hummer EV Watts to Freedom launch - video
GMC wouldn’t let journalists drive in Watts To Freedom mode, so I rode shotgun as an engineer unleashed the full force of 1,000 electric horses. It was as violent as any acceleration I’ve ever experienced in a variety of supercars. GMC says WTF mode unlocks a 0-60 mph time in as little as 3.0 seconds. No production internal combustion engine could push 9,000 lb forward that quickly.
“The efficiency of these (motors) is so high. Not having torque losses, not having friction losses. It’s pretty amazing the level of power you’re dealing with,” Oppenheiser enthused. “You can reverse the polarity and slow the vehicle down. That’s the one pedal drive.”
Green enthusiasts will remember the Hummer H2 as a capable off-roader but also perhaps the most egregious gas burner of the 21st century. Oppenheiser says GM chose the Hummer name in part because of that reputation.
2022 GMC Hummer EV prototype, engineering drive, September 2022 at the Milford Proving Grounds
“We’re giving you more capability than that (the Hummer H2) had, and if you hated it because of what it was doing to greenhouse gases and so on, well, your excuse is gone,” Oppenheiser noted.
Except, perhaps, if you choose to compare the Hummer EV’s efficiency to other electric vehicles. Although given the anticipated 350-mile range for about 200 kwh, it might not be as bad as it sounds.
GM has thrown everything it can at the Hummer EV. Oppenheiser explained the reason why: “Our goal was to take away the excuse why somebody would not want to buy an electric truck by coming out with the halo, full monty in the first version.”
GMC provided travel and a bag of chips for Green Car Reports to bring you this first hand report.
