Everything about the GMC Hummer EV is big and over the top. Just a few examples of this include the off-roader’s peak output (upwards of 1,000 horsepower), its speed (0-to-60 mph in as little as 3 seconds), and its curb weight (over 9,000 pounds). It should come as no surprise, then, that charging this beast can be rather costly as well.
In a recent report, Car and Driver says it took the GMC Hummer EV to a local quick-charger station to see how much it would cost to bring the onboard GM Ultium battery pack up from a 10-percent charge to a 90-percent charge. According to the publication, adding this extra 80 percent of battery charge cost $81 at a rate of $0.43 per kWh, taking an hour and 49 minutes to do so.
Indeed, by modern EV standards, that’s rather pricey, not to mention quite a lengthy charge session for a DC quick-charger station. Of course, those numbers should be viewed with consideration for the GMC Hummer EV’s total battery capacity, rated at a rather ridiculous 212.7 kWh. By comparison, the new 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV has a battery capacity of 65 kWh.
Car and Driver also points out that the Hummer hit a peak charge rate of 287 kW, making for the second-highest charge rate among the 20 competitors in the publication’s “EV of the Year” contest, bested only by the Lucid Air. That said, the Hummer EV’s average charge rate was a much-lower 98 kW. Car and Driver also adds that the charge session was done at an Electrify America station in Michigan, which added a 6-percent sales tax to the equation. Additionally, the charge was not 100-percent efficient, losing approximately 5 percent of charge over the course of the session.
Indeed, although the GMC Hummer EV does not produce any local emissions, it is most definitely not energy efficient by any measure. As one might expect, given the specs and heritage.
As a reminder, the GMC Hummer EV is based on the GM BT1 platform, while production takes place at the GM Factory Zero plant in Michigan.
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Comments
Not all chargers are equal, I’d like to see what the Amperage and volts that charger was rated at.
Also like gas stations depending on the company or location the cost may be different, also if you pay for a sub or not for EA or EVGO… etc.
I don’t see how you can blame the Hummer when no mention of mileage in the calculation. That’s like saying it cost $100 to fill up a car, when you don’t mention how many miles you got out of the tank.
Anyway, power is far more expensive and gas is cheaper than EV die-hards want you to think. A gallon of gas is 33.7 kWh thermal. Assume 33% efficiency on a gas powertrain, so that’s 11.23 kWh/gal to the wheels. At $4/gallon, that’s 35.6 cents/kWh. That’s less than 43 cents/kWh here, and we’re ignoring EV powertrain losses and charging losses, and the fact the EV is free-riding on road taxes.
You’re ignoring 90% of EV charging is done at home where it can cost nothing if you have solar or about 12 cents kwh if you don’t.
You’re ignoring that this is a huge, inefficient vehicle. Powering it with electricity just glosses over that.
Compared to any truck on the road today it’s very efficient. And you can’t compare this to the Bolt, Model 3 or Model X. They have very different purposes and abilities.
I can compare it to anything I want. I’m going to compare to things that also transport people and things.
This is a hugely wasteful way to do that.
They should be comparing it to the Sierra 2500 HD based on weight and power. 99% of the haters can’t afford one.
Simpleton.
Another bad number. The average US residential rate is 14.9 cents/kWh. And where people buy the most EVs, California, is 27 c/kWh. New England is 24 c/kWh.
And solar isn’t “free”. What’s the amortized cost of those panels?
Even with your numbers it would cost much less to charge at home. So my point still stands.
It would take 6 or 7 DAYS to go from 10% to 90% at home using Level 1 charging. Level 2 charging will do it in 7-10 hours. Most EV owners will probably have Level 2 charging available at home. Regardless, the power companies will start to get wise and change the times and rates for “off-peak” and “peak”. As more people buy EVs and plug in at home at night, the power companies will start considering that “peak” times and adjust the power rates accordingly. Eventually, everyone will be paying more for electricity even if they don’t own an EV.
Electric in nyc is 28 cents a kWh . Not much of a bargain
James : Electricity in NYC is AT BEST 28 cents/kwh… I suspect most Hummer evs are *NOT* sold there… My electricity has been going up but it is currently 14 cents/kwh – exactly HALF of your figure… The HUMMER EV obviously will cost less to refuel than those old GAS Hummers…
Let’s assume you are driving 400 miles and need 200 kwh to replenish the fairly dead battery by the time you get home (at a locale with the same rate of electricity charges as mine)…. That is the HUGE dollar sum of $28. Whoopty Doo….
People with anything bigger than a compact were complaining about $80 Gas fillups…
I would think they would ‘suffer along’ with $28 if they could.
Car and Driver said they were getting 290 miles on a charge driving at highway speeds. Charging the vehicle from 10 percent to 90 costs $81.00 and took one hour and 49 minutes to accomplish at an Electrify America fast charger. Extrapolating their actual costs for a partial charge resulted in an estimated cost of over $100.00 for a full charge; a figure that would be more expensive than gasoline.
They also said the vehicle weighs 9,640 pounds. GM had released a figure of 9,100 but it’s apparently quite a bit heavier than that.
But it’s green though…right? Well if it’s driven in Detroit where GM is headquartered and where it’s built, it runs on coal 60 percent of the time as that’s DTE’s primary source for electricity generation.
What’s really quite interesting is that GM has built the ultimate off-road vehicle but if one were to take it way off the beaten path to, say, a cabin in the woods and plug it up for a recharge on 120, it’ wouldn’t be ready to head back in the morning, or even the next morning. In fact, it would need more than a week (8.3 days) on the charger to be fully juiced-up for the journey back. Considering that, it might be better to forego the proverbial beaten path and keep your Hummer close to the highway and maybe just take it to the gravel part of the Days Inn parking lot instead.
It’s the future though. That’s for sure.
Ci2Eye
98% of the Hummer use will be by suburban asphalt warriors who purchased this vehicle as an image prop. It’s pure essence is conspicuous consumption and that I’m more hip than thou.
It’s for the virtue signalers. I bet the private jet owning-environmentalist celebrities will all have one.
If this was an ICE vehicle, it would most likely have a 32 gallon gas tank, and get 10 miles per gallon. So you would be looking at about $140 to fill it up, and would have a range of about 320 miles. So this EV version has basically the same cost and range using electric. These Hummer EVs are just toys for the rich and famous and the YouTubers that want content. They certainly aren’t very practical.
EV vehicles are only as clean as the source of the power for the charging. The charging network in the US is quickly getting overcrowded and under-maintained/outdated. Just like most other infrastructure. As much as I dislike Tesla, they are the only ones actually doing it right with regards to a charging network…that is why people continue to go Tesla when they want an EV and need to know they can charge it on the go whenever they need to go out of town on an extended trip. The other non-Tesla drivers trying to rely on Electrify America and chargepoint are finding out very quickly how painful it can be to do what should be a simple recharge.
But you can fill it and be on your way in under 15 minutes which is why I’ll avoid electric vehicles like the Monkey Pox.
I agree ICE refueling is a benefit when travelling. But day to day your EV will always be filled up while you’re sleeping.
From what I understand, if an owner recharges their EV every night while they’re sleeping, it significantly shortens battery life. I agree that one big advantage to an EV is to start each day with a “full tank”. However if an owner does that it functions as a charge/deplete/recharge cycle and there are a finite number of those available in each battery before it will need replacement. It’s better instead to use the battery down to 10 percent or less and then recharge so that likely means charging up every few days or weekly. Following that protocol eliminates the fresh-every-day benefit though.
You understand wrongly Ci2Eye….
Charging up overnight is basically a ‘trickle’ charge. More to the point – Plug in hybrids EARN THEIR KEEP by fully utilizing their dinky battery capacities, to keep any expensive gasoline consumption to an absolute minimum…
The fact that there is ONLY a 40% degredation loss over 90,000 miles with no real effect on the vehicle other than the battery is smaller, but functionality is still 100%..
Shouldn’t have to mention it – but if your tranmission falls out on the driveway it will usually take you longer to get to work. The plug-in hybrid, on the other hand, has a zero-wear facility on GM vehicles from late 2010 – 2019.
Sam-
33% efficiency is the absolute best efficiency possible… I’d say the average is around 20-25% in typical driving. Anybody ever see the amount of heat coming from transmission coolers? Thats ALL TOTALLY WASTED engine power.
As far as the writer saying an ‘over 200 kwh’ battery is ridiculous – that is just silly… A large vehicle needs a large battery… Simple as that.
GM is shooting for under $100 per kwh for their Ultium Batteries… That’s $20,000 on a $100,000 vehicle with a 200 kwh battery. The battery should last way longer than the average GM engine/transmission combination…. Actually very reasonable pricing.
EVs have losses too. Battery round-trip efficiency is around 80%, worse if you’re fast charging. That’s why batteries are liquid cooled, and the whole point of DC fast charging is to put the hot inverter/rectifier outside the vehicle where large fans cool it. Then add electric motors and driveline losses.
Plus you got the motor itself, and drive electronics, again all liquid cooled on modern EVs. So waving the fact that a transmission gets hot is a disingenuous argument, given all the other stuff that gets hot on an EV.
Hahaha Sam:
Your ridiculous numbers are simply disproven by the fact that it costs MUCH LESS to refuel an EV. The bigger the EV the more consumption of course, but comparing apples to apples vehicles means a SUPER HUGE EV saves a much much larger Dollar Figure.
Anyone with half a brain knows this and I’ve seen nothing in the 11 years that I have been driving plug-in cars exclusively to show any concern at all about how Little my Gasoline expense is, (I’m having trouble getting rid of gas cans of the stuff before it spoils), and also how little my electric bill has risen, and how my Gasoline Expense has Dropped through the Basement.
Wait until there is an electrical brown out and they can’t get their wonderful EV charged even at home! I think a lot of the new green deal is going to be a new bad green deal sooner than later! Tomg
Unless you’re driving 300 miles in a day and return home with a dead battery more than likely you’ll be able to use the Hummer to power your house.
That’s a pretty expensive and impractical way to power your house.
Nate:
Uh – Chief ! You don’t do that every day of the week….
People might use the very popular facility on Ford Lightning f-150s and also the totally gasoline-fueled power-pro f150’s that have a similiar facility……
In cold snaps for areas not used to them – they save people’s lives’… GM ev trucks will – obviously for competitive reasons match this ESPECIALLY POPULAR FORD portable power feature – although contractors will use the feature mainly to provide easy power anytime their incidental tool use requires it.
The old Hummer was a gas guzzler and the new Hummer EV is an electron guzzler. But the new Hummer EV is greener than the gas version.
6% sales tax for an intangible energy item? The road useage recovery costs will get interesting in the future. Wonder when they will initiate the GPS road use tax billing and charge system?
Hello Moab. Might pay to bring your portable Honda gen set with you in the back of the Hummer.
It’s a Hummer it’s expensive, costs a light to charge, and this is for bragging rights to say you have the biggest baddest Truck on the block I will wait for the Equinox EV thanks.
What part of “Super Truck” is confusing here. Anything with “Super” in front of it will not be cheap to refill (gas or electric).
I keep watching the situation with Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The lake and dam provide hydro-electric power to three states; California, Arizona, and Nevada. About 50 percent of its output goes to California and sources indicate it provides power to 1.3 million homes in Los Angeles or about one-third of the total. However, there’s a perilous drought in the region that has dropped the lake level to the lowest point in its history and is jeopardizing its power production capability. Last summer, it was producing 25 percent less power than in prior years and this year is likely down even more. If water levels continue to drop, it could have to suspend power production.
So what happens to Los Angeles if they lose this vital resource concurrently with a wide-scale adoption of electric cars as Barra and Biden are planning? California is in the process of closing Diablo Canyon, which is their last nuclear plant and they are reliant on other states to produce much of their power already. What if Nevada/Arizona and their Hoover Dam can no longer do its part. California has already gone back to burning more natural gas. So the virtue signalers in Hollywood proudly driving their “green” Hummer are still using fossil fuels now and the situation could become more dire in the near future.
California is a joke….. The smart people have already left the state….
Electricity by comparison isn’t worth worrying about. Due to excessive solar power, they have TOO MUCH electricity during the early morning….. Car people should be incentivized to charge AT THAT TIME.
Bill Howland:
California thinks they are hip, progressive and cool. They think the rest of the country are a bunch of dunderheads. Their thinking is catching them with their pants down. Newsom is suddenly freaking out and coming to a hard cold reality check about the closure and demolition of the great trouble free Diablo Canyon nuclear generating facility producing 2256 MW of clean carbon free electricity.
As electric consumption increases in the future along with their plans for desalination plants along the coast and more data centers, along with the crazy electric car rage, planners are now starting to have caniptions about where oh where are we going to get these moving electrons to propell and feed everything.
They are now finding that taking major western coal plants off the western grid is starting to be counterproductive. Such demolished plants such as the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, the Carbon Generating Station in Helper, Utah, the Public Service of Colorado Coal plant in Grand Junction, Colorado, along with several more, have significantly lightened the grid feed.
A new flavor of the moment thing to compensate for this feed loss is a 700mw wind farm in Wyoming to feed LA. Line loss push anyone?
At the end of the day California officials need to take a evening course at their local Community College in basic applied electricity. Newsom is starting to see outside all the pipe dreams the value of the great PG&E Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant. A marvel of stellar engineering with a current replacement cost of $25B, and a demo cost of $5B.
For those interested, PG&E offers free tours of the Diablo Canyon plant. Contact them for bookings.
Everybody needs to quit compressing seat cushions in their air conditioned offices for a while and get out into the field to see what is actually happening.
D-A-M :
Yes – I switched over to electrics since I was going to refuel them with American Mined Coal running in the large Coal plants in my locale… Every one of them has been shut down due to making too much plant food.
The latest Great-Brain Idea our governor has is to make illegal improper use of personal pronouns….
I know all these governors are on the take – but can’t Cathy Hochul do at least 1 or 2 things that are not brain dead? Fat Chance those central stations ever work again – but we don’t need any electricity from them anyways since as James J. Kilpatrick stated on 60 minutes about fourty years ago that:
“In 10 years – if they get rid of all US industry – we’ll all be selling each other Insurance”.. Of course such common horse sense was too Much for CBS and he was replaced by that IDIOT Andy Rooney – who talked about such important subjects as:
“Why are Cereal Boxes different shapes?” or “Why do you go to START on Windows to STOP it?”
David Alan,
Excellent insights. Are you available for the Governor’s job?
EV’s are all about controlling the masses. It has nothing to do with the environment.
Today on Fox Business, the price of natural gas was shown to be at a 40 year high. This will translate to the future cost of electricity. When it comes to energy prices nothing is reasonable anymore.
Richard…. And Gas and oil don’t control the Masses!? How do you get to work walk? You need gasoline or your out of luck and have no job! The Big Brother has had us by the balls for 100 years and they will continue to tighten their grip wether it be with oil or electricity… There is absolutely no need for gas to be this expensive but if EVs become more efficient and that’s what you want to buy then that’s your God given right to buy ICE or EV… Sometimes I swear all the mechanics are ganging up on EV power because they will lose profit of well to bad so sad 😭… We need both ICE,. EV and diesel and Hybrid! I have said for years what about a diesel hybrid vehicle… Now that’s efficiently!
HUMMER BEING A HUMMER.
Nothing new and not news to me.
Next the government will require you to purchase one wind turbine to charge your EV vehicle. The truth is coming out and you all know as do I, these EV vehicles are being heavily promoted without research on the effects of the energy grids. Keep up the great work GM or should I say Biden GM.
I would rather buy a wind turbine than fight another war over our fuel interests. Do you know we could have fixed the entire grid, roadways, etc… for the amounts we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Flew,
Would you rather the next war will be with China over rare earth minerals needed for EV batteries?
The Chinese currently refine 73 percent of the cobalt supply for the world, 68 percent of the nickel, 59 percent of the lithium and 40 percent of the copper meaning they are by far the dominant nation in refining the strategic minerals required for every EV battery. Further, China also produces most of the world’s mineral-rich battery cell components to include 70 percent of cathodes, which are required to boost the amount of power an EV battery can deliver. China’s unquestioned dominance in mineral refining and battery manufacturing means that it will play a vital role in the production of every EV that Biden and Barra have planned for America’s future. What thinking person would conclude that to be a good idea?
Thanks to relatively recent developments, the United States can and has been able to independently produce a sufficient supply of energy in an ICE-based transportation system to meet its needs. Thus, the question of whether we take up arms against the Middle East or the Far East is invalid. We don’t need to battle anyone if we maintain our current system. If we proceed to full adoption of EVs, we become reliant again on a hostile foreign power. And that foreign power (China) is building 43 new coal-fired generating plants while we’re closing all of ours. If there is a Global Warming issue, how does it help the planet if the US closes their coal-fired power plants but China opens new ones? We’re merely foolishly ceding our energy independence and sovereignty but the overarching climate issue remains.
Just because China refines a lot of raw materials doesn’t mean they can’t be mined or refined somewhere else. All the raw materials you mentioned are available in North America.
Seems like you want to fight wars until every drop of petroleum is sucked from the earth and then hope something replaces it. News flash something is already here. Are EV’s perfect – no. They don’t work in many circumstances. But there are a lot of instances where they do. You’re comparing modern EV’s that are about a decade old to 100+ year old ICE technology. Imagine EV’s in 10 more years.
ICE vehicles will not disappear overnight and will be around for decades to come. Just don’t expect to go to your local new car dealership and buy one 15 years from now. As my daughter tells me – that’s a future me problem.
I would put a wind turbine in my yard in a heartbeat… Especially if I get a tax break for having it! Then again I wish I had a gas pump in my driveway to! If you have like five acres of land like my parents you would forget the wind turbine is even there. Oh the noise they make now I can’t have my Disney world life!