All New Electric Hummer (EV) that will blow your mind
General Motors Co.’s brand-new GMC Electric Hummer (EV) pickup truck and associated SUV model now have more than 77,000 people on standby. Most people may expect to wait quite a while.
A dozen Hummers are reportedly being built every day at GM’s remodeled Detroit facility, which employs roughly 700 employees. Consultants in the auto industry note that this rate is low for a vehicle that has been in production for over six months and that it lags behind the production rates of competitors like the Ford Motor Company and Rivian Commercial vehicle decrease.
Hummer EV manufacturing at GM’s Factory Zero, which completed a $2.2 billion upgrade to produce electric vehicles, is on target, a company official said. The new EVs framework used in the development of this truck has contributed to a slower-than-usual ramp-up. He said that GM is concerned with introducing new technologies without sacrificing quality.
He predicts a dramatic uptick in production in the second half of the year as a result of the launch of the General Motors (GM) joint venture with LG Energy Solution (LG), a battery cell manufacturer based in South Korea. The new facility to produce these cells will open in Ohio this summer. LG cells have been contracted out for use in all existing Hummers.
GM’s capacity to meet demand will increase as the company begins to “vertically integrate” battery cell manufacturing, according to a company representative. “What started in the hundreds this year will balloon into the thousands by the end of the year.”
He continued by saying that the distinctive capabilities of the Hummer EV have made buyers eager to wait. GM’s representative said that the Hummer’s superior driving range and quicker charging periods, among other attributes, make it impossible to compare the vehicle to competing electric pickup trucks.
As automakers go into electric cars, the market for electric pickups is projected to emerge as a key battlefield. Investors are keeping a close eye on the experiments being conducted by General Motors (GM), Ford (F 0.58% increase; green up-pointing triangle), and others in this space. To this day, pickup trucks continue to be the most popular and lucrative vehicle for Detroit’s automakers.
Whereas the computer-chip scarcity and other supply-chain bottlenecks have slowed vehicle production and sales, especially of gas-powered vehicles, automakers are striving to bring electrics to market.
Ford produces roughly 150 F-150 Lightning electric trucks every day on average at its plant in neighboring Dearborn, Michigan, a spokeswoman said, but the Hummer only produces about 10. In April, the business started making new trucks.
About 2,500 of Rivian’s new R1T pickup trucks were produced in the first quarter, the business said, making it the fastest-growing product launch ever for the nascent electric vehicle manufacturer. Both Rivian and GM have said that manufacturing started at the end of 2017.
Hummer models range in price from around $85,000 to $110,000, but GM hasn’t said how many it hopes to sell. Lightning costs vary from approximately $40,000 to more than $90,000; Rivian’s R1T is priced from roughly $80,000 to $95,000.
Because of the Hummer’s higher price, GM likely is projecting considerably lower sales volumes than those rivals, said Sam Fiorani, a vice president at research company AutoForecast Solutions. According to him, Chevrolet will market the Silverado as Ford’s main rival in the pickup truck market.
Neither General Motors nor Ford sell very many electric vehicles (EVs), and the need for EV pickup trucks has yet to be demonstrated. Amid rising investor interest in Tesla Inc. TSLA’s -1.63% decrease; the red downward-pointing triangle and other EV players, company officials have been bragging about their electric-vehicle initiatives for years.
