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GM resurrecting Hummer as an all-electric ‘super truck’ with 1,000 horsepower

campfire said:
Neither of these statements are true. I can think of 5 new plants built in the last few years, just in the towns where I've lived and worked. The power company that I used to work for has more baseload gross nameplate capacity now than when I left, even if you don't count solar and wind farms (and they'd strongly like to include those assets in the count). Yes, they've retired several old plants, but they've built more capacity than they've retired.

Have they built enough? Probably not. Certainly not enough to sustain a massive switch to electric vehicles. But the idea that we haven't built any new power plants in 40 years is completely in left field.

Solar panels have become drastically cheaper to build in the last 20 years. Even in my cloudy region, unsubsidized PV panels can pay for themselves in a few years. Long before they exceed their lifespan. The high financial and energy cost is from the battery systems that usually accompany them. And those are getting cheaper, too. This is assuming you're talking about PV panels. Thermal (hot water) panels have always been cheap.
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You sure they're power generation and not just sub stations? What are they burning to generate? The big question is where is the electricity going? I was surprise to find out that the nuke plant in Lacey NJ sold all it's power to Canada. It was a massive ratable and those residents are going to get hammered when their property taxes go up this year.
 
diesel4me said:
When Ferdinand Porsche designed the first VW Beetle prototype,he originally wanted it to be electric,with a drive motor for each wheel..
This was back in the late 30's..
So I guess nothing is new under the sun..:dunno:

He ended up going with a gas engine instead due to battery life being a big problem..now about 80 years later,we still dont have the battery part fully figured out..


The first gas powered Beetle had a radial engine,based on airplane designs..but during testing,they started snapping crankshafts like peanut brittle,so he invented the "flat four" or horizontally opposed engine design,which proved very durable and is still used today in Subaru's..
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He did the same thing with the Tiger one tank...
 
The range is what kills it for us non city dwellers. They will have to find a way to use the wheels to create electricity along with solar panels for extended range and maybe even an evil honda gas gen to get you home in a pinch.

I still think the tech isn't there. The hole in the ground made to mine for minerals to make the batteries is just as bad as open pit copper mines etc....
 
runamok151 said:
You sure they're power generation and not just sub stations? What are they burning to generate? The big question is where is the electricity going? I was surprise to find out that the nuke plant in Lacey NJ sold all it's power to Canada. It was a massive ratable and those residents are going to get hammered when their property taxes go up this year.
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I wrote out a long response to this, but it must not have posted correctly. :dunno:

Shorter version:

Sutherland, Emery, Kaukauna, Marquette, and Baraga are all new natural gas plants. Riverside is a refurbished gas plant that used to be idle. Weston 4 is a coal plant, perhaps the last one of its kind.

A number of small coal units have been retired in the last 10 years, so some (but not all) of this new capacity is replacing old capacity. Kewaunee nuke plant closed a couple years back. Duane Arnold nuke plant is scheduled to close due to lack of grid demand. Keeping the generating fleet matched to the grid demand is a delicate balancing act. Every change ripples through the entire regional grid. Marquette's new plant is significantly smaller than the two plants they closed, but that's because a majority of their regional power consumption went to 2 iron mines (one of them has closed, and the other is now buying power directly via MISO instead of their local utility). Sutherland is the opposite situation. A small plant was replaced with a large plant, so Marshalltown now has surplus capacity that can be sold elsewhere.

I'm not surprised that a particular plant is selling primarily to customers outside its region. This market is highly regulated, and the economics are skewed in weird ways. Like how that iron mine is now bypassing their dedicated plant 15 miles away and buying from general purpose plants hundreds of miles away. This is dumb from a grid stability perspective (and MISO even told WEC as much when they first asked to close the plant), but Tilden mine is saving a few bucks. So it will continue as long as their regulations allow.

I don't know much about New Jersey. But in the MISO region power plants are funded by ratepayers. They have no connection to property taxes aside from paying them (which would lower the average tax bill for everyone else). The ratepayers can and do sometimes get hammered, but not via property taxes. Our utility boards work at maintaining a fixed profit ratio for utility companies. If they are making extra money selling to Canada, the IUB will demand a rate cut elsewhere to balance the books.

It's all a confusing mess.
 
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What do you think of this rendering? THIS IS A RENDERING

Article: https://www.caranddriver.com/gmc/hummer-ev


gmc-hummer-e-truck-fr1-final3-1580917363.jpg
 
CK5 said:
I hate to say this, but I fully expect GM to screw it up ala the Blazer.
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No doubt. It will be something that the average automotive enthusiast won't be attracted to.

That said it's really only a matter of time before you can select gas, diesel or electric on the option sheet for your basic k2500...
 
What is the fastest charge time on EV's that you can get today?

I think that's the big issue. It seems everything boils down to that. Less range, power grid requirements, battery production issues, etc. That all can most likely be solved or dealt with. But if the fastest charge time is still 30 minutes its a non-starter. I can fill my trucks up in 3 minutes. That's why we don't have 50 fuel pumps at every station.

Every electric thing I have that is battery powered has a need for multiple batteries. So you don't have to stop doing whatever you are doing for 15 to 30 minutes during charge.

If they can't solve the charge time thing, then its going to turn into a community car deal. You drive your POS until you find a charging station and hop in one that is already charged leaving the other car for somebody else. But wait... that doesn't work with social distancing. :rotfl:
 
Theoretically you could have pull-out batteries, like a forklift, but it would ruin the whole vehicle layout. Somebody would own all the batteries and sell you energy, which would drive the cost up to pay for all the bad cells, maintenance and storage. Would be at least as bad as Blue Rhino. The cars would be much cheaper and you would never have to buy a new battery, but the car makers would have to agree on some standard. Small cars take 1 pack, larger cars 2 packs, 4 for tow rigs, etc. Also has to be some kind of insurance or buy-in to cover messed up cars that ruin batteries.
 
I think Tesla full-charge is still closer to 1 hour. However, with EV you don't "top it off" like liquid fuel, you typically charge to some other percentage because it's better for the battery. You only have to take on enough energy to get home. Charging time is a function of battery capacity, so while a Leaf might be charged in 45 minutes, a Cybertruck would take closer to 4 hours at the same charging rate (40kWH vs. 200kWH). Theoretically the vehicles could have multiple smaller packs and charge them in parallel, but I don't know if the future charging stations will support that or you'd be tying up multiple chargers.

This is still one of the main reasons people considers EVs as commuter cars and not road trip cars.
 
Blue85 said:
you typically charge to some other percentage because it's better for the battery. You only have to take on enough energy to get home.
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This is inconvenient when your plans change halfway home. Oopsies, I can't go do whatever thing just got added to my schedule. I must go home before my batteries run down.

I like electric cars. I would very likely buy one if I were looking for a brand-new commuter car. I think they will be competitive soon. But today, they just aren't useful compared to long-range cars that refill in 2 minutes or less. People suck at planning ahead, and slow charges don't accommodate that.
 
And there I was. Got the add in an email. Four wheel steering on top of the rest. Thinking this is probably as close as we will ever get to a K5 resurrection.
Maybe I should keep an open mind.
I open the ad there’s the racist LeBron’s mug plastered all over the ad.
Nah! I’m out!
https://www.gmc.com/electric-truck/hummer-ev
 
campfire said:
Also, has nobody yet made fun of the claimed torque numbers for this new Hummer?

11,500 pound feet...at the wheels. A stock 6.2/SM465/NP208 makes twice that much at the wheels, before adding doublers or aftermarket gears. And we call that engine gutless. :rolleyes:
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Being axle torque vs axle torque, it's probably a fair comparison, but I can see your point that people never talk about axle torque, only engine torque. Compare it with a Duramax allison with 4.10 gears that will be more like 25,000. But keep in mind the electric will put down that same torque over a very broad curve - i.e. your whole acceleration range. Your corner-case of granny low and low range is only good to what - 5MPH?

beags86 said:
I bet it will have a motor at each wheel and a gear reduction box. 4 motors and 4 boxes. Not one or 2 drive units with a differential like a Tesla.
The tq number is probably based off those gear reduction boxes.
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If that's true, then you only need 250HP and 2875 lb-ft at each wheel. If that were an 8.3:1 reduction like Tesla (maybe you want more because of the bigger tires?), each motor would make 347 lb-ft. That's within the range of torque that Tesla motors make right now. The only one I see has a size of 9"L x 9"diameter, so yeah, maybe you could package one at each corner. It's a lot of unsprung weight, but probably no worse than a set of solid axles...

Bowtiek10 said:
One issue is not necessarily the amount of electricity, but the amount rare earth metals to produce all the batteries and components may not be enough to sustain the change.
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There's always talk of new battery chemistry (like the Aluminum air, with energy density similar to gasoline!), but so far they are just lab experiments with major hurdles to solve. AFAIK, Lithium is the only thing currently in mass production - and it's basically only found two places in the world.
 
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Blue85 said:
Being axle torque vs axle torque, it's probably a fair comparison, but I can see your point that people never talk about axle torque, only engine torque.
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Yes. I'm not mocking their drivetrain, just the marketing department that decided to hinge their campaign on a crafty but useless torque rating. They could have boasted about the wide torque band or the acceleration times or a dozen other things that would have a noticeable impact.
 
campfire said:
Yes. I'm not mocking their drivetrain, just the marketing department that decided to hinge their campaign on a crafty but useless torque rating. They could have boasted about the wide torque band or the acceleration times or a dozen other things that would have a noticeable impact.
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They are going after the masses that don't know what we know.
That number will get them.
 
Is there any word on the drivetrain configuration? This VW concept is only 100hp (per wheel), but you have to believe if somebody can figure this out, the whole layout of the car can change. I don't know if growing the outer rotor can be equivalent of enough gear reduction.

electric hub.jpg

It also makes me wonder if somebody will offer a super-economy car with 1WD, like a kids Peg-Perego. :haha:

According to motortrend, it will have 4 halfshafts (like H1) with all motors inside the frame.



https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-gmc-hummer-ev-electrick-truck-fully-independent-air-suspension/

2022 hummer susp.jpg
 
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