How the Electric Hummer Made GM "Fun"

Compiled / Zhu Lin

Edited / Meng for

Design / Zhao Haoran

Source: CNBC, topspeed, by Michael Wayland

GMC Hummer's new electric pickup is different for GM, not only because it is not no longer an oil tiger like its ancestors, but also because the new flagship model, born on the new Ultium EV platform, is refreshing a new benchmark for GM manufacturers in terms of development time.

For those who designed and built it, the product shows that the historically conservative Detroit automaker is undergoing a major shift in both form and function.

At the same time, it has some other notable features to demonstrate the changes that GM is unfolding as a car company to better compete with Tesla and other electric vehicle startups.

These features include: a button that currently has no function, but is placed in a prominent position, which is used to interact with the user to build a future imagination;

Introduced the "Watts to Freedom" (wTF) mode, which can start the massive vehicle to 60 mph in about 3 seconds, an acceleration comparable to chevrolet Corvette.

"We want this car to have a lot of surprising things to show consumers that we did on purpose." Aaron Pfau, chief development engineer for Hummer EV, said at a media event, "It's about changing the concept in your head and letting you see what not only an electric car can do, but what GM as a whole can do." ”

Pfao and the rest of the Hummer EV team, under GM's strict legal system and bureaucracy, enabled rapid decision-making and unique features that the company had never done before. They did it in a record 26 months, which is about half the development time of a typical car project.

Its overall mission is to quickly create a "fun" vehicle to draw attention to General Motors and new electric vehicles.

GM interior refers to it as "moonshot," a nod to NASA's Apollo 11 first lunar landing. It is expected that by 2025, GM will have 30 models on the market worldwide.

"The overall goal of this car is to get people who aren't necessarily excited and have ideas about electric vehicles." "We added everything to this car and added all the fancy features," Pfao said. It's kind of like a halo car, isn't it? Although its sales may not be high. ”

Break

The Hummer EV team was largely given the freedom to play, and they created the car around the idea of building an outdoor high-performance off-road "super truck." Essentially, it's about modernizing the super fuel-hungry Hummer brand to create a bold electric car that showcases the best the company has to offer.

"We do give a lot of power to the design and lead engineering teams, and we say, 'Hey, just let it go.'" Duncan Aldred, GMC's global head, said, "I think it's going to be a lot of fun for people and I think that's what we're positioning and packaging for this car." ”

The use of the word "WTF" usually conjures up people with that extremely vulgar abbreviation. Senior members of Hummer's EV team, supported by GM executives, did things differently and were approved after a debate with the company's lawyers.

"It was a very engaging experience and we wanted to break the mold." "We don't want you to continue to think that we're still the old-fashioned, dull, traditional company," Pfao said. We really felt like a startup on this project, inside General Motors, clearing that path for us. ”

Others, such as exterior designer Brian Malczewski and vehicle dynamics performance engineer Drew Mitchell, feel similarly about the project.

Aldred credits GM CEO Mary Barra and president Mark Reuss for giving the team a very large amount of operational freedom within reason.

"It's not that we can do anything irresponsible," Aldred said, "but obviously, we're in an environment where we have to deliver what our customers want that will get them excited." Tesla, frankly, they've done a great job of all of these things. ”

Some of Tesla's features have been controversial, notably allowing drivers to play video games while driving, and the system is still being made available to consumers in the testing phase, raising concerns about its assisted driving system.

Although this feature has been revoked, they did it at the time and attracted a lot of consumers.

Aldred said GM has a history of deploying such features safely, and super Cruise highway driver assistance has also won a horizontal review with Tesla in the U.S. Consumer Report, and the system is also used on Humvee.

The Hummer also has a four-wheel steering system that enables the vehicle to make extremely compact turns and offers a "crab mode" that allows the car to move diagonally. The model currently in production offers 1014 hp of power and 15592 Nm of peak torque.

However, as with GM's original Hummer cars in the 1990s and 2000s, this capability comes at a cost. Although it doesn't consume fuel, it does consume a lot of energy and weighs more than 9,000 pounds. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that weighs about 4,000 pounds more than the heaviest Chevrolet Sorod 1,500 pickup truck, more than twice as much as a regular new car.

Car and Driver reports that the Hummer EV pickup is rated 47MPGe, which is the mile-per-gallon fuel equivalent of the electric vehicle's range. That's about 33 percent less than its competitors, including the smaller Rivian R1T pickup and Ford's upcoming F-150 Lightning.

The Hummer Edition 1, which is currently being produced at a factory in Detroit, has an electric range of 329 miles, surpassing The Rivian and Ford's electric pickups. Both automakers, as well as Tesla, say their pickup's long-range option will be available at a later date.

Easter egg

The car's other hidden or surprise features, also known as the "Easter Egg," range from moon-inspired design elements to customizable graphics of digital assist buttons. Optional images include explosives and skulls, as well as a pattern of a Hummer EV crushing Tesla Cybertronk.

Malkzewski said: "We make this stuff very interesting, and we don't usually do these things in your average car. ”

This button is a small "H" with three markers around it, arranged in a triangle. The button can be used for additional off-road or performance modes, or other features of the vehicle, Pfao said.

"We're now asking for feedback: 'Hey, what do you want?'" he said. We've looked at a variety of different functions that can be implemented through control. ”

This hidden feature and remote update is quite novel for traditional automakers like General Motors, but it has been a staple for Tesla, a leader in the electric car industry. Bora has said that by 2025, GM will surpass Tesla in electric vehicle sales in the United States.

The promise of profitability

Since the launch of the Hummer EV pickup in October 2020, GM has received more than 65,000 orders, including for the truck and the upcoming SUV version of the car.

Aldred said 80 percent of bookers had ordered the most expensive model of the car.

"We have a goal, we want to create a business case, and we're achieving it." Aldred said.

Although refusing to compare profitability with traditional fuel models. But he said that even if the future top-duty models account for only 40% or 50% of total deliveries, they still have very strong profitability on this product.

GM has also made a promise to investors that starting with Hummer, its next generation of cars, whether it's the Limited Edition Edition Edition edition of a Hummer EV starting at $110295, or a version that comes after $80,000 to $100,000, will be profitable.

Aldred said that while Hummer EV pickups have already started selling, new orders may not be completed until 2024 due to the current number of bookings. The SUV version of the pickup released by GM in 2021 is not expected to arrive until 2023.

"What we're focusing on now is how we can maximize production, how we can deliver and complete these bookings as quickly as possible." Aldred said, "We're doing research on this and we're confident we can do it a lot sooner than originally envisioned, but that still means bookings now could be delivered in 2024." ”

This article was originally produced by Automotive Business Review

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