The steady march of electric vehicles into territory once deemed impregnable by the promoters of the internal combustion engine (ICE) reached another milestone when makers began announcing full-battery light truck/SUV models.
Initially, the Rivian ute and SUV were dismissed as an unlikely start-up to make it to production, and Tesla’s Cybertruck was seen as a quirky foray into the field.
And while barely a year has passed since federal Liberal minister, Michaelia Cash, uttered the memorable words that a federal EV policy would ‘steal the tradies ute’, 2021 is looking like the year that the ICE light truck bastion is set to fall.
Rivian now has shown full pre-production versions, secured major backers like Ford and Amazon and has an ever increasing orders book.
Tesla’s Cybertruck factory is rapidly rising from the ground and new light truck model announcements are coming thick and fast from new and old manufacturers alike. What many of these have in common is a 2021 release date.
In that vein – early this year General Motors announced that not only would the Hummer badge would be reborn under the GMC (General Motors Truck Company) brand, it was to be a full-battery EV to boot!
The initial details beyond that were vague – and to some degree they still are – but this week GM released an official video detailing more of the Hummer’s specs, official reveal date and estimated timeline for sales to begin.
The estimated performance specifications now released by GMC are listed below:
| Power: | Up to 1000 horse power |
| Torque: | Up to 15,500Nm |
| 0 – 100km: | 3.0 sec |
| Range: | Up to 640km |
| Charging: | ‘Super Fast’ |
The pick-up truck (ute) is to be formally revealed later this year, at which time the order books will open. Production is slated to begin in the second half of 2021. It was also announced this week that an SUV wagon is well into development.
It will be interesting to see what Michaelia Cash and Scott Morrison make of this.
Bryce Gaton is an expert on electric vehicles and contributor for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the EV sector for 10 years, and also is editor of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association newsletter.
