TRAVIS LANGNESS: Look, it's the new Hummer EV. It's got all sorts of crazy stuff going on. It's got 1,000 horsepower. As much as 350 miles of range.
Zero to 60 in three seconds. And it's got all the wild truck bits you would expect from something like a Raptor or a RAM TRX. So what does this compete with? The Tesla Cybertruck. It's not out yet. The Rivian R1T isn't really dedicated to off-roading like this truck is.
And the Ford F-150 EV, we haven't driven that yet. And it's not really something I would consider off-road focused like the Hummer EV. So we're here at Milford, GM's proving ground. We're going to get in the Hummer.
We're going to take it around all of their off-road and on-road courses. We're going to have an engineer join us in the vehicle and tell us all about how it drives and why it drives the way it does. For more information on this vehicle and all its competitors, click the link in the description below.
And to get a cash offer on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sell-car. All right, everybody. So clearly, this is not normally how we film videos.
I've got a mask on. It's to protect me, protect the other people with me. GM has been gracious enough to let us see the Hummer ahead of time. This is a pre-production vehicle. It's actually their engineering production vehicle.
The one they've, a test mule they've been using here at their super secretive proving grounds outside of Detroit just about 45 minutes north. And we're going to take it off-road. We're going to see what it's like to use all of the wild new technology. So now we're going to put it in drive.
It's in my mode. SPEAKER: It's an off-road mode. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Off-road mode.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Regular drive. SPEAKER: Yeah, you were in drive. TRAVIS LANGNESS: We're gonna take off. SPEAKER: Here we go. We can go that way. [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: This is a stretch between the cone.
Just give it the gas and get here to the cones. You'll see how we apply with torque vectoring all this horsepower to make this seem like you're not on gravel. I mean, it really hooks up so-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: So three motors, 1,000 horsepower. We're not doing Watts to Freedom.
This is just a dirt run-- SPEAKER: Yep. TRAVIS LANGNESS: --and see what it's like, all right. [CAR VROOMING] Whoa! Man, that thing goes.
And it gets sideways in the dirt at 50 miles an hour. I had to actually let out of the throttle there. That's pretty impressive. SPEAKER: So we can keep going.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: OK. SPEAKER: And then what we're going to do, there's some orange cones. We're going to go left.
Or, I'm sorry. We're going to go right up the grade. It's an 11% grade. But as you turn to face the grade, let's come to a stop, and we're going to go into terrain mode low. I want a demo what Aaron was talking about with the one-pedal drive, how we use this for off-roading. You're familiar with one-pedal drive and regen-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah.
SPEAKER: For like, the Bolt EV. So we're going to go into terrain mode, which is going to take us up the four inches. And we ask people to accept it because it's a speed-based mode.
Not everybody's going to want to drive in train mode on the street. So we make sure you know what you're doing. So we're in terrain mode and, I'll show you the cameras and how we can use the 18 camera views.
While he's doing that, we'll go through, you'll see you've got front, behind. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So, just to not gloss over that, there are 18 cameras on this vehicle. You have several cameras now that are actually underneath the body of the vehicle so you can see what you may or may not be about to hit when you're off-roading. And those cameras are actually behind the skid plates, so you're not in danger of tearing them off. You're going to hit the skid plate first. SPEAKER: So here's backward, forwards, and you actually give you a wash.
So if you're out off-roading-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: You've got a-- you can wash the underbody off-road camera, all right. SPEAKER: So as we go up, you can hit the stick back one to go into L. TRAVIS LANGNESS: OK.
SPEAKER: And then I'll remind you. Also, we have a paddle off to the left on the steering wheel that gives you a little bit more diesel if you need it. But you'll see as we go up in terrain mode here and the hill. As we come down, just take your foot off the throttle, and you'll stop.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: So now we're going to go up the hill. One-pedal driving. I let off the brake, and it didn't move. So now I have to touch throttle to go. I mean, that's-- one-pedal driving is one of my favorite things about EVs. SPEAKER: So take your foot off the throttle here.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Foot off the throttle, and I'm on a 13% grade right now, according to the vehicle. And my foot's not on the brake. It's not going anywhere. So I have to press the throttle to go.
Have to press the right pedal. SPEAKER: Yes. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Not really throttle, you know what I mean. SPEAKER: So now you see, you, you lost your ground, and you just see the sky. And this is where the cameras are going to benefit you. So you either use the underbody camera so, as you'll see when you get to the rocks.
You could watch your spotter through this camera because you can't see him this way. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, and you've got the 360-degree camera. You've got the underbody camera. These are both super useful in scenarios where you're just looking up at sky, which happens a lot in off-roading.
[MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Truck we're currently riding on has 35 inch tires. And while GM doesn't have 37 inch tires on the option sheet, you can fit 37's underneath that. And to me, that really puts this in a different class than upcoming vehicles like the Rivian R1T or even the Ford F-150 with its EV powertrain. Because you can't get tires that big on something like that. You can get it on the TRX or the Raptor, which is interesting that you're going to now have an EV competing with those two vehicles.
SPEAKER: Now, what we're going to here, is I'm gonna show you what a rear steer does for a big vehicle like this with turning circle. So I'm going to take another camera view, and I'm going to show you the-- This is the front sides. This is the rear side.
So what you'll see with the overhead and the front sides is you'll see your cones, and you can stay inside the cone circle. We're going to show you what a tight turning circle looks like in a big vehicle. So go ahead and aim toward the cone that's down here.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: The far one? SPEAKER: You're one o'clock, and then take the turning circle around here. Just to get an idea of what a great little turning circle you've got. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And then I see the cone. SPEAKER: I mean, see it up here? You can avoid all of them.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: And this is a 37 foot turning circle on this one? And apparently, on the SUV in the future, that will be even smaller? SPEAKER: SUV has a 9 inch shorter wheelbase, so the turning circle is 35 1/2 feet. So it's the same as the Bolt EV. Now, let's do a little serpentine and go slow on the course here to the left and around. And you can look in your camera views, and you'll see that if we wanted to, we could probably shorten these cones up a little bit. But-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: This is the world's slowest slalom, and I'm all here for it. This is how you get fun places off-road.
And I'm actually using more steering input than I need. I'm expecting that this vehicle is going to take more steering input. It doesn't really require it. It feels-- the vehicle, obviously, is massive, but the way this steering feels and the way it moves is much smaller than the vehicle's actual size. SPEAKER: So let's come to a stop here.
So that shows you when the wheels are opposed to each other up to 10 degrees, what a great turning circle you have. And how you can slalom through. And you can-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: And that is move up to 10 degrees at any time, not just during crab walk. SPEAKER: Right.
So when you, yeah, and so now what we're going to do is we're going to put the wheels in phase with each other up to 10 degrees. And this is how you'll see that you get the crab walk mode. So when we get the production, that will do it in drive, but in our test vehicles, we do it in park.
So right now, the button at the nine o'clock position, just hold it down, and you'll see a cool graphic come up. TRAVIS LANGNESS: I'm holding the crab walk button. SPEAKER: So here we go. You'll see-- you got to hold it down. Hold it down, and you-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: I saw a video, and I thought it was-- SPEAKER: It's OK. Here we go.
You're going to make a circle-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Including crab walk. SPEAKER: Look, let go. You're in crab mode. You got a confirmation. You've got a crab up there.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: [INAUDIBLE] real steering. SPEAKER: Put it in drive, and now you've got to give it steering angle and go to the left side. And then you can start going left and right and make your way down the road. Turn right now.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: OK. This is really weird, and I kind of love it. SPEAKER: To the left and your crab walking. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And I am currently zigzagging up and down the road like a drunken crab on the beach. This is very fun. And you see this being used in what scenarios the most? SPEAKER: So, from an off-road road scenario, we gave an example earlier.
So let's say you're on a grade that's gravel. You're off-roading. And you get into a situation where the back end starts to slide downhill.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah. SPEAKER: And normally, with a solid rear axle, you're going to have to give it throttle. And you could end up, let's say, there's a tree or a rock at the bottom of your hill. You're going to end up swaying the back end around to get up that hill.
You could cause body damage. Well this-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: I have done that more than once. SPEAKER: And that so have we.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, the vehicle just slide sideways. SPEAKER: Yep. So crab walk mode, you leave the vehicle in the position you're in. The wheels can turn, you can go up the hill, and your body stays the same.
You won't have to swing that rear end out. You'll just crab walk up the hill and get back on the trail. So if you overtake the front steering more than 10 degrees, the rear can only go 10 degrees max. You will start-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Turn the vehicle. SPEAKER: You'll keep turning the vehicle, and you can actually drive the vehicle around if you wanted to. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Incredible.
Is there a speed limit on that? SPEAKER: There is a speed. It'll blend out at 25 miles an hour. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So, like once you get on the highway, it just shifts out of crab mode.
SPEAKER: Right, but you got to remember. When you slow down, you're going to-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Then it'll go back into it. Interesting. So-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] SPEAKER: We'll get out of it here as we make the right turn. So if you want to press that nine o'clock button, just press it once. TRAVIS LANGNESS: While driving? SPEAKER: Yeah, go ahead.
So you see you're back door rear steering. You'll give it steering input, and it knows that you're wanting to get out of-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, it feels like a normal car. SPEAKER: And you're back to, except you're back in the rear steer now, which is not a normal car but-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah.
SPEAKER: It's the normal mode for Hummers. We're going to go to the right. TRAVIS LANGNESS: But it's not moving laterally [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: Turn. Hit back and get in low and then go ahead and-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Looks like he's clear there. SPEAKER: Just going to follow this around, but you feel how the rear can kick out on you.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Oh, yeah. Rear moves. SPEAKER: Take the gravel and then position yourself between the cones, and we'll take this rock up. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So the train-- the lifted suspension will come on all edition one Hummer EVs? SPEAKER: Yep. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And that's an additional 5.8 inches of ground clearance? SPEAKER: Yes, yes, it is.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Now, lining myself up between cones. SPEAKER: So you don't need a spotter because you can see from the front cameras. You see the cones.
You can see your tires. Front. And you can see rear. And so you can place the tires wherever you want to. And actually, when you get the vehicle up, and you start to normally be in a situation where you lose your spotter because your vehicle is up in the air. You can see that's actually a spotter on your lower cameras.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: And the graphics and resolution on all of these screens is really high. That's-- if there's any complaint I've had with outboard cameras on some other vehicles, it's resolution. Because the point of the off-road camera, the camera on the outside of the vehicle is making it so you don't to have a spotter. But here, legitimately, they're so crisp and so clean and, the screen is so big that there is no need for me to have anybody out there. And I'll just the washer.
You can clean off the dirt and the mud as you're going off-road road. So, I mean, really that's a super unique feature that you used to only see on the headlights of expensive luxury cars from the 90s. Ready. SPEAKER: I'm ready. TRAVIS LANGNESS: OK.
So just straight ahead, one-pedal drive? SPEAKER: Yep. Line yourself up on any of the rocks you want. [INAUDIBLE] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Just going over-- SPEAKER: Big rocks tiny inputs. [INAUDIBLE] wherever you want.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: Whoa, it's right there on the camera. SPEAKER: You're OK. TRAVIS LANGNESS: The rock is very close to the camera. And it's disconcerting, but it's protected. So that's nice. SPEAKER: Yep, it's protected by the skid plate.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: And also, this is truly one-pedal driving and these kinds of-- oh, there we go. SPEAKER: You're all right. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Skid plate. SPEAKER: Well, the rock seemed to have moved out from under the truck. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And these kinds of scenarios when you're doing off-roading like this. It's very typical to go two-pedal driving and modulate yourself that way.
But right now, I'm doing one-pedal, and it's really frighteningly. What's the word I'm looking for? Intuitive. It feels like that's the way it should be. The two-pedal stuff, you don't do it during daily driving. So it feels unintuitive til you get used to it off-roading, but one-pedal driving here feels like it should be that way. SPEAKER: Oh, good.
That's what we wanted. But for the purists that really like two-foot driving, you don't have to be in low you-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: You can change the regeneration of a braking and adjust that. So if you really like it, go for it. SPEAKER: Right. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: So now, we're driving on-road on the ride and handling test track here at the facility. And there is manufactured noise from the Hummer coming into the cabin, and it's noticeable, but I feel like if I have non-copyrighted music, I can just turn it up a little bit.
And you guys would get a sense that you're not getting drowned out by it. Now, I'm getting some wind noise or maybe powertrain noise out of the front or these-- SPEAKER: You're getting some wind noise up here in that seal. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And that's fine. Pre-production vehicle, test vehicle. But from underneath the vehicle with 35 inch all-terrain tires underneath, I'm getting surprisingly low amounts of road noise. Which is something that's a big complaint in off-road vehicles and trucks in general.
When you-- especially when you put such heavy-duty tires on them. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: All right, so now I'm going to park and let the engineer drive because he knows what he's doing. SPEAKER: But since you're going to demo Watts to Freedom and you're going to get the full 1,000 horsepower, we thought we'd make a little theater out of it. So when you're ready for Watts to Freedom, you push this button two times, and it will give you a little bass. You have to say, yes, this is what I want to do. Like are you sure? And so as the vehicle lowers, this is part of the theater-- there goes one.
So you get this infinity screen, and it's lowering now. So it's telling me we're ready. So if I've mashed the floor.
The break to the floor, mashed the pedal to the floor. And you ready? TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah. I know well enough to-- my head on the headrest there's no [INAUDIBLE] SPEAKER: That was 75. TRAVIS LANGNESS: 35 miles an hour in approximately no time at all. Somewhere around four seconds, probably.
SPEAKER: Yeah, we got a little wheel slip there. It was probably a 3 1/2. Maybe a little higher. Maybe.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: The big screen here shows the track then launches onto the moon, which is kind of fun. SPEAKER: So you'll notice we stay in Watts to Freedom mode. I can do it again. You like that? You ready? TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yep. Ready to go.
[CAR VROOMING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Big surprise, 1,000 horsepower, makes it go fast. SPEAKER: So here's a couple of things about the Watts to Freedom mode. We've unlocked the 4,000 horsepower, and we're not out of it.
So I can drive around now. I can drive around town. I got full horsepower.
Now, the vehicle is its lowest ride height, so you're going to be a little bit compromised in the damping because this is really for full shots. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah. SPEAKER: But, if you like the look, it's gotta cool low rider look. You got full power. You're in it through the key cycle. Unless you change modes or key off, you're in Watts to Freedom full power now til you get out of it.
The other thing is, we don't charge you for this. We don't give you five and lock you out. You get it all day.
All day, all night, any time you want for as long as you want it for life of the vehicle. The only difference, the only time you don't is if, let's say it's-- you're out in Phoenix, and it's 120 out. Battery temps are hot.
It's a little bit too hot to give you the full Watts to Freedom experience. It's a big while for the battery to cool and condition, or it's extremely cold, and it's-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: Can't get up to temperature. SPEAKER: Right. So, somebody had a great analogy.
They said, well, sometimes you go to the amusement park to ride your favorite roller coaster, and the roller coaster works, but it's pouring, so come back when it stops raining. It's kind of like that. If you get-- want the freedom any time you want, but if the conditions aren't right at that moment, you just have to wait longer. But you'll get it.
We don't want people out of it. We just have to wait, so-- TRAVIS LANGNESS: You'll have to wait until the sun goes down in Phoenix-- SPEAKER: Yes. TRAVIS LANGNESS: --for the temperature.
[MUSIC PLAYING] So what's good? And what's bad? Well, the Hummer has extreme off-road capability and not just for an EV. This can really compete with the Ram TRX and the Ford Raptor. It's also got lots of available tech and cool modern in-car driver aids. Plus, an impressive electric range estimate from GMC of 350 miles. Unfortunately, this is a really expensive truck. I mean, we're talking way more than big rivals.
And it'll have a small cargo bed that'll limit its utility. Plus, despite its 350 mile range, this is a heavy pickup. So it probably won't win any EV efficiency awards. So after a short drive in the Hummer EV, I'm coming away with some pretty significant questions and some pretty significant impressions about this massive vehicle.
My first question is, what does it compete against? Honestly, the Venn diagrams for this crossover with a lot of different stuff. So I'm interested to see what it's like out on the road and if you'll be able to actually compare it to some of the EVs that are already on market. I'm also interested to put it up against some of the biggest, baddest SUVs that are out there.
Trucks that are out there. Stuff like the RAM TRX and the Ford F-150 Raptor because those are the baddest off-roaders, and this stands within a shot of competing with them when the road gets really rough. What's it like to drive on-road? Well, we just got to do a little bit of lapping here at GM's Milford grounds, and it feels quiet and comfortable. Like it will match its $110,000 price point. But the best part is, it's going to go down. Later editions will be $100,000, then 90, then 80.
Of course, with a little bit less content, and hopefully, that trend continues with GM's Ultium battery power. It'll work its way down into the Hummer EV SUV for a little bit less money. Then it'll work its way down, hopefully, into other vehicles.
I'm thinking the Silverado, which they've already talked about. And eventually into stuff like, maybe the Canyon, or the Colorado. Can we get EV pickup trucks in every different size? Fingers crossed. Thanks for watching. For more information on the Hummer EV, don't forget to click the link in the description below. And if you want more car videos, click like and subscribe.
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2021-10-07