But seriously, I didn’t quite believe it when I first saw it. According to GM Trucks, the upcoming GMC Hummer EV will weigh 9,046 lbs, that’s just over 4,000 kgs. Ranger Rovers, which everyone knows are massive, weigh around 2,500 kgs. The electric Hummer is likely to be one of the heaviest publicly available trucks, ever. But let’s put that into some kind of context. Here are some other things that weigh about four tonnes:
Two adult rhinoceroses A whale’s daily diet One or two adult hippopotamuses Twenty blue whale hearts Two and a half average European cars
The electric Hummer is a dense beast. Now that I’ve picked up my jaw from my desk, and composed myself, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the Hummer EV weighs so damn much. The original Hummer H2 civilian SUV death machine weighed about 3,000 kg. It was big, weighty, and totally excessive, and as a result, it got terrible gas mileage. Drivers were lucky if they got 10 mpg out of those things. It was partly because engines weren’t designed with efficiency in mind, but also because it weighed so much, and was as aerodynamic as a brick wall. So engineers of the new electric Hummer are faced with a challenge. They’re making a vehicle, that’s already going to be quite heavy due to its size, into an EV, and if you didn’t know, batteries are very heavy too. It becomes a bit of a catch 22. Engineers can add more batteries to increase the car’s range — which is already compromised because of its size and weight — but in doing so it adds more weight, which further compromises its range and performance. As The Drive reports, the Hummer EV will have a 200 kWh battery pack, which in true Hummer form is excessive to the point of being ridiculous. It’s more than twice the size of battery you get in a Tesla, or a Polestar. The 85 kWh battery pack used in a Tesla Model S weighs around 1,200 lbs (540 kg). Making a conservative estimate, we can expect the Ultium battery platform in the Hummer to weigh more than 1,000 kg. Despite the weighty battery pack, the new Hummer EV will be about 25% battery, which is quite common for electric cars. I guess it’s no wonder the Hummer EV super truck has 11,500 lb-ft of torque, it needs most of that just to get moving. Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up? Then you need the weekly SHIFT newsletter in your life. Click here to sign up.
