Posted on 01/10/2020 1:17:46 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
General Motors Co will revive the Hummer name to sell a new family of electric pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles and will tout the return with a Super Bowl ad featuring NBA star Lebron James, two people briefed on the matter said on Friday.
The vehicles will be sold under the GMC nameplate. Reuters reported in October that GM planned to build a new family of premium electric pickup trucks at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant beginning in late 2021 and was considering reviving the Hummer name, citing several people familiar with the plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The Hummer: 1-1/2 ounces rum, 1-1/2 ounces Kahlúa, 2 scoops vanilla ice cream, a couple ice cubes. Blend and serve in rocks glass topped with a maraschino cherry.
Your “battery breakthrough” has already happened, at least enough to reach “good enough for most people & most uses, at a decent TCO price.” The next breakthrough, essentially “double power at same volume & price”, will pretty much clinch the transition.
The problem with hydrogen is it’s a fuel. That locks you into THAT fuel. Batteries don’t care about fuel; you can charge an EV with coal, gasoline, diesel, LPG, propane, solar, wind, hydro, tides, hamster wheels, whatever.
The “charge time” argument is diminishing, approaching irrelevant. Most of the time an EV is fully charged in the morning (just plug it in at night), with range beyond what most drivers will need most days. When charging _is_ needed, there’s usually a “supercharger” en route providing what you need in the time you’ll want to get out & stretch anyway. Range anxiety is something people get over; gasoline range anxiety is about as much of a thing. Insofar as ICE still has an advantage, that’s shrinking steadily.
EVs _are_ the LEDs in your comparison. Hydrogen & Hybrids were the CFLs, still stuck to a technology you really don’t want after all.
The HMMWV could also tow more, go faster, carry more troops, carry more troops and equipment in a dedicated ambulance version, carry more weapons and more varied weapons, climb taller obstacles and most importantly run off the same fuel the tanks, APCs, artillery units and trucks it was accompanying did.
The M151 Jeep was only better than the HMMWV in certain narrow aspects of the performance envelope. It and it’s predecessors were also slower than some US WW2 tracked vehicles.
The Hummer name sort of fits an electric vehicle.
But GM will undoubtedly bake in the unreliability of its earlier internal combustion vehicles.
Why not just call it the “GMC Recall” and get it over with?
The Wife had a couple of Hummers - they were called Suburbans.
Other than having 4 wheels, HMMWVs and Hummers are nothing alike. Not sure why you even bring it up.
Heretic
Just drove from Albuquerque to Las Vegas and back over the holidays. About 400 miles each way. No electric vehicle can make that trip (at least not with the AC on).
The gas powered vehicle I drove got about 30 miles to the gallon. We spent about $70 in gas. Refilling took about 5 minutes.
I did not see a single electric vehicle charger in my travels. Even if I did, the best "super chargers" - not that I have seen any - get you to 100% in 30 to 45 minutes. Add to that waiting for the guy(s) ahead of you to charge their cars and you could have a considerable wait.
Electric vehicles fill a niche and are not replacement for gasoline powered vehicles.
Sounds like a good summer drink.
Such a trip is a rarity for most people. It is the niche.
Most people need a runabout to do under 200 miles per day.
There are EV trip planner tools that will get you to wherever you need to go, routing to chargers as needed.
Whoever is GM’s public relations director should immediately be fired...what a colossal mistake...
I’d have to drive 20 min out of my way to get to a charger...and perhaps wait when I get there? Not practical.
I don’t own a gun because I use it every day. I have one because when you need it, you need it.
At least a couple of times a year I need to make an extended trip. Where I live, near Albuquerque, other cities are a bit of a haul. Denver is 6 hours away, Phoenix and Las Vegas are about 8 to 9 hours away. Currently, I can drive anywhere, with little planning, and know when I will get there and about how much it will cost.
With electric vehicles, even with your online tools (and how often, especially out here, does one find oneself without access to the internet) there is strategic planning with a fair chance of failure. So I plan to drive to the limit of my range to Kingman, AZ because my online tool says there is a charging station (compatible with my vehicle) there. When I arrive, the charging station is inoperable. I am now stuck with a dead car 300 miles from home, looking for an outlet to plug into so I can charge overnight?
Maybe someday the infrastructure will be there. Maybe someday, all across America, there will be charging stations as plentiful as gas stations. Maybe someday the tech will advance to a point where you can charge in 5 minutes, everywhere. Maybe, someday, the manufacturers of these overpriced toys will stop lying about the range. Maybe someday they will be truthful about aging batteries and shorter range. Maybe someday replacing the batteries will be cheap and easy. Today is not the day.
The electric car is a lot like gas powered cars in the late 1800’s - expensive, impractical, and lacking infrastructure. Eventually those problems were solved because traveling by car was inherently better than horse drawn carriages. An electric car is not better than a gas powered one, only different. And not always different in a good way.
Government Motors is stupid.
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