Hummer EV - Best Off-road Beast

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Words by Perry Mack

Photos courtesy GMC

GM’s designers are planning to drive this heavy-duty truck on the Rubicon Trail and on some of Moab’s toughest trails including Hell’s Revenge. Let’s look at what they built to see if they can really do it.

This started as just another electric truck project at GM. But when the designers started hankering for some serious off-road chops, somebody said, “Let’s build a new Humvee”. And what we’re seeing now is military heritage applied to an electric rock crawling, desert running beast that couldn’t be built using traditional methods.

There are some marketing distortions surrounding the Hummer EV and EV trucks in general and we’ll clear the muddy marketing waters as they come up, and the first one is the 11,500 lb ft of torque. This is wheel torque, not motor torque and there’s quite a bit of difference. Watch our motor vs wheel torque video called Motor Torque vs Wheel Torque. If we do the math using the gear reduction ratios of 13.3:1 in the front motor, and 10.5:1 in the two rear motors, we get a total motor torque of roughly 1,000 lb ft, the kind of torque you get in the new heavy-duty diesel trucks. Which is a very solid number. My 2011 6.6L Duramax has about 780 lb ft of torque and it pulls like a freight train, never mind the new Chevy 3500HD, which effortlessly yanked around a 35,000 lb trailer.

The 1,000 horsepower looks to be on the money. Three engines, two in the back and one in the front are rated at 250kW of peak power. Since there are three of them that totals 750 kW which translates into roughly 1000 hp.

And that’s how you get from zero to 100 kph in three seconds using Watts to Freedom, one of five selectable drive modes. Watts to freedom has all kinds of digital theatrics like a count down, in dash graphics, music, and a base rumble for an amusement park like ride as you virtually teleport to 100 kph. There is also Adrenalin mode, which doesn’t have all the in cabin special effects but it does takes one whole second longer to reach 100.

These are, dare I say ‘typical’ electric vehicle numbers. They’re not all that special for EV trucks, none of which are in production yet. But the numbers are impressive for a truck. The Ford Raptor is a benchmark off-road performance truck and it takes 6.6 seconds to get to 100 kph.

Blinding acceleration aside, let’s look at the off-road chops that make the Hummer EV really stand out. This is GM’s halo supertruck that is going up against the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian RT1, and other gas-powered performance off-road trucks like the Ford Raptor and Ram TRX.

GM says the truck is e4WD, which isn’t exactly what you expect. There is no low speed transfer case because electric motors have incredible instantaneous torque. The Hummer EV, holds its peak torque through a wider speed range, up to 60 kph (40mph), than diesel engines. The other thing is you cannot select rear wheel drive only, so it really is an AWD vehicle. When we asked GM they said, ‘AWD - We call it e4WD. We don't run RWD only for a combination of reasons - efficiency, controls strategy, etc.’ For now, the ‘e4WD’ label is just marketing.

When it comes to rock crawling it has a max approach angle of 49.7 degrees, max breakover angle of 32.2 degrees, max departure angle of 38.4 degrees and a max ground clearance of 15.9 inches (404 mm). We say ‘max’ over and over because the truck has a four corner, independent adaptive air suspension system that can raise the truck 15 cm from its standard height in ‘Extract’ mode to help you clear obstacles. It will also take you to a very respectable water fording depth of 813 mm (32 in). You won’t want to drive around in extract mode though as it is speed limited and there isn’t any wheel travel at that height, but in Standard or Terrain mode you will get 330 mm (13 in) of wheel travel.

Since we’re talking about the suspension, it will also lower by 50.8 mm (2 in) to make it easier to get in and out of the truck, improve aerodynamics, and it is used during high speed acceleration in Watts to Freedom or Adrenalin mode to lower the centre of gravity and make the truck more stable.

35-inch tires are standard but in keeping with the Hummer military heritage it can handle 37 inch tires without modification, bumping up your angles and ground clearance even further! As an added bonus, if you choose to go 37’s, the gauges including the speedometer can be adjusted so everything is still accurate.

Regardless of how high drivers are, they’re still bound to scrape the undercarriage as they test their abilities and that of the Hummer EV, which is why it comes with full underbody protection. If they do manage to get this beast stuck, there are recovery shackles in the front and rear, but we don’t see an integrated winch in the bumper, which would have been stellar.

Aside from angles and clearance, the next most important feature for off-roading is maneuverability, especially for a truck that is 2201 mm (86.7 in) wide, has a 3445 mm (135.6 in ) wheelbase and is 5507 mm (216.8 in ) long.

A long time ago we drove a Chevy 2500 with quadrasteer, and it was an amazing improvement for making tight turns and a huge help while trailering. The Hummer EV has four-wheel steer that results in a turning radius of roughly 18 and a half feet (5.65 m). Chevy engineers says it will be as easy to park as a Chevy Spark, so, at maneuvering tight trails it should be awesome. Even more impressive is Crab mode, which angles the front and rear tires ten degrees in the same direction, moving the truck diagonally. We have to admit that when we first saw it, we thought it was more of a party trick than a functional feature but after some thought we realized that there are times when it could save a few body hits on the trail.

Traction is a big deal on the trail and every serious off-road vehicle has lockers, and so does the Hummer EV, sort of. Up front is a single electric motor that drives both front wheels and comes with a driver selectable e-locker. But the rear is driven by two separate electric motors, one for each wheel, there is no differential to lock. Here the engineers created a virtual locker by electronically setting the motors to turn at the same speed. You can turn on the rear locker, or the rear and front locker, which will synchronize all four tires.

Terrain mode will also allow one-pedal control for low-speed off-road driving, as we’ve seen in other EV and hybrid vehicles. When you select it, the system optimizes regenerative braking, friction braking and drive motor torque slowing the truck whenever you take your foot off the accelerator. Getting over, around or through tough spots is easier since you just focus on steering and the accelerator.

Then there’s the open-air off-road experience of a removable roof. The four panels can be stored under the hood, called a ‘frunk’ since there is no engine there, and the rear window goes down for an almost complete topless experience.

18 camera views let you see all around you but it’s the underbody cameras pointed at the wheels that will help the most off-road so you can pick your line. It’s like having a virtual spotter. The engineers expected them to get dirty so naturally there is a wash system for each camera.

There are quite a few off-road trinkets and widgets. The tire inflation/deflation warning is interesting. The driver sets the pressure he wants to get to on the dash and then manually adjusts the tire pressure until the horn beeps. A central tire inflation system like the H1 has would have been a lot more impressive.

The drivers dash is a configurable 12.3 in screen, and the infotainment system has a 13.4 in screen large enough that you can run two different widgets at once. It will display all sorts of off-road info like torque output, wheel travel, tire pressure, pitch and roll angles, and chassis ride height. More importantly is has virtual switches for aftermarket accessories you add like lights and winches. We like the analog switches below the screen for key off-road features like the lockers. When you’re getting bounced down a rough trail, hitting a digital switch is as tough as throwing a bullseye just before last call.

Speaking of accessories, there will over 200 available factory approved at launch.

GM says the batteries will take you roughly 560 km (350 mi) on a charge, which should get you out for a day on the trails and back. And that they are capable of using fast charging systems that will go from empty to full charge in 30 minutes.

The protype truck shown is called the First Edition and only comes as the crew cab with a five foot bed. It will ship in the fall of 2022 and will sell for $112,000 US. Apparently, reservations for this trim sold out in ten minutes online, although GM hasn’t said how many that is. Less expensive versions are planned to roll out in the following years forecasted to come down to $90,000 or less.

If the Hummer EV was on dealer lots today, would you buy one, instead of the current high performance trucks in their luxury trims like the Ford Raptor, Ram TRX or a Denali HD? Assuming you had the money to spend.

With a 1,000 lb ft of motor torque and a 1,000 hp, this could be the death knell for gas and diesel engine trucks. But only if suppliers vastly improve the number of fast recharge stations, reduce lengthy recharge times, improve range while towing, and lower prices. Then we could see wide-spread adoption of EV trucks like the new Hummer. Until then, my oil burner will take me on adventures that EV’s only dream of.

Motor Torque vs Wheel Torque Video - https://youtu.be/FitlS27qIzQ

Hummer EV Video - https://youtu.be/sTObYMvhviE