[Music]
So one time when I was about 16 or 17, I was driving my car down the road. I just barely got
my license and I saw a fleet of military Hummers driving the opposite direction.
And I was so enthralled by this fleet of Hummers that I didn't notice the car
in front of me stop...and fenders got bent. One of my very first car wrecks all because
Hummers are awesome. So if you thought the Hummer truck was the only new EV from GMC,
you thought wrong. Behind me is the Hummer EV SUV. And today I'll show you what's different,
as well as how it all works from the inside. The batteries are pretty awesome. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So the reason I like electric vehicles and electric trucks and electric SUVs so much
is because the power and torque is always there instantly, from the very first RPM. When you
have a gas powered vehicle or a diesel powered vehicle, you have to have the engine revved up
to get the full power. This is ready to go from a standstill. And not only does it have all the
power all the time, there's also hardly any maintenance, as well as you never have to go
to a gas station, which is a pretty big deal. And Hummer has taken all of those conveniences
and put them in a massively capable off-road package. I'm pretty excited about this.
There are a few differences between the SUV and the truck. Notably, the wheelbase is 9
inches shorter as well as the bed is shortened up a little bit. There is a spare tire included with
the SUV, but a lot of the things are the same. Like the roof comes off so it is a convertible.
We still have those 3 windshield wipers up front, which is kind of fun. The front
frunk also opens up to store those roof panels, which is pretty awesome. But one thing I didn't
mention with the truck is that there are over 200 accessories available for this. One of which
is a charger that can plug into the charge port and charge other electric vehicles. So if there
was a Tesla that had lost his charge and was dead on the side of the road, this Hummer EV could be a
Tesla rescue vehicle. Pull up alongside and start charging it up with 6 kilowatts of power pulling
directly from the battery. There are still 17 different cameras all around the outside,
including back up here by the back windshield, here by the tire, as well as underneath the
vehicle. We'll get to the batteries in a second, but a lot of the features between the SUV and the
truck are the same. Still has the Crab mode, still has the air ride canisters that adjust themselves
500 times a second, you know, for a smoother ride. We still have 5 seats in the Hummer SUV,
as well as more interior enclosed cargo space in the back. The enclosed cargo space can be
opened with a key FOB, as well as a button right here. We have the back opening up. The
back window does come down as well. And just like the Hummer truck, we have the topographical map
here of the Sea of Tranquility on the surface of the moon. It has the same kind of interior theme.
With the seats laid down, we have about 6 ½ feet from the back of the driver's seat to right here,
so if you wanted to camp and sleep in the bed of this you could. As we all there are 82 cubic
feet of storage. And the interesting thing is that this is exactly four feet wide, so if you
wanted to put a sheet of plywood or something back here, you could. Which is incredibly useful if you
use your vehicle like a tool like I do. So if you're a fan of the original H1's like I am,
you'll know that they had some pretty impressive water forwarding capabilities. They had a
snorkel right here and as long as the water line stayed below that snorkel, they could be rivers,
lakes, streams, everything. This Hummer EV also has water forwarding capabilities.
It's down right about here at 32 inches – just above the tire. So off roading through lakes,
rivers and streams, as long as the water is below the tire line, it's still just fine.
And, of course, the interior has the same utilitarian rugged feel that we saw in the
truck. It's got dual screens and buttons so you can control everything right from the steering
wheel and the side console without touching displays. I'm about 6 feet tall and here in
the front seat I have enough leg space, arm space, and head room. But let's just check out the back.
It's a little more cozy back here, but still, plenty of room for the knees. And with the
roof panels in place it would still give me plenty of head clearance, but, of course,
we're going to leave the roof off because the wind through your hair is the best feeling there is.
For me vehicles are tools. It would be really hard for me to buy something that I couldn't
use and abuse. And Hummer has taken this into consideration when designing their
off-road vehicle by giving us replaceable body panels if something does get dinged up.
Check this out. With 17 body cameras and 16 inches of ground clearance, people are going
to take this off road and this panel right here, anytime it ever does get dinged up or damaged,
it can just be popped off and removed pretty easily. And of course, we also have the under
body protection protecting the battery pack, as well as...this is a pretty good shot of
the control arms and that air ride canister that adjusts those 500 times a second. This is also how
it raises and lowers the suspension and how the back wheel can rotate and turn for the Crab mode.
So both the Hummer EV truck and the Hummer EV SUV have over 11,000 pound feet of torque at
the wheels. And a 0-60 of 3 ½ seconds. I think it's time we take a look at the
battery to see what makes this all possible, and how it really works from the inside.
So right now I am in GM's battery testing facility. Normally we would be wearing masks, but
since it's so loud in here and we're practicing social distancing, I'm going to take mine off
so you can hear me. Each one of these blue machines behind me is a temperature controlled
chamber where they can put entire EV battery packs and test them in super hot or super cold
temperature ranges. There is a row of machines behind me, as well as a row of machines the other
direction. This facility is huge, and it's where GM is testing their new Ultium battery technology.
So inside of the GMC Hummer EV and the truck, there are battery modules that give the truck it's
power. These right here are the modules inside the truck. For the truck it has 24 of these,
and for the EV SUV there are only 20, making it just the size of the pack because it's modular
to fit either the SUV or the truck. So inside each of these battery modules
are these pouch style lithium batteries. This is way bigger than the battery you would find inside
of your cell phones. So a cellphone is usually anywhere from 3,000-5,000 milliamp hours.
This right here is over 100 amp hours. So each of these little pouches is like
20-30 cell phone batteries. And there are 24 of these pouches in each one of these modules. And
there are 20 modules inside each one of the cars. So basically, and I'm just doing all this math
on the fly. Basically, the Hummer EV SUV is running about 10,000 cell phone batteries,
which is pretty impressive considering it's got a 0-60 in 3 ½ seconds,
and over 11,000 pound feet of torque at the wheels. It's a good way to use your cellphone.
But in order for these batteries to be safe, they need to go through a ton of testing. And inside of
this battery lab we have one of the coolest machines I've ever seen. They can simulate
almost any environment...super hot, super cold, humidity up to 99%, all the way down to 1%. And
they can cycle the batteries while they are inside of this chamber. This is the truck pack with the
24 modules inside. This chamber right here can go all the way down to a negative 68 centigrade,
all the way to 85 degrees, all while it's being charged and discharged. So, like, you're driving
in the Sahara desert or you're driving in Alaska, this allows you to test the battery in real time.
So the chamber simulates the outside world while there's still coolant running through
the pack itself. And remember, that coolant can be cooled or heated to keep the battery
pack at the optimal temperature. Remember, lithium batteries are kind of like humans, and they like
to be in the same temperature that humans are at for their best performance in battery life.
So anytime a lithium battery is charged or discharged, it fluctuates a little bit in
it's thickness. So what GM is doing here is it's measuring that tiny little bit of change
with each of those cycles so they can engineer the foam inside of the battery packs. Once they know
how much the batteries expand and contract, they can build the packs in a way that makes them last
a really long time. EV battery packs can last hundreds and hundreds of thousands of miles.
This machine behind me is the ultimate durability test for lithium battery packs.
It can provide a lifetime's worth of abuse in just a few weeks. And they call
it the megashaker. Inside of the blue chamber is temperature controlled so they can get super hot,
super cold, while the battery pack is driving a lifetime's worth of bumps on the road. And
it all happens super fast in a short amount of time. The reason this machine is so large
is so that it can fit an entire battery pack in it at the same time. Remember,
this battery pack is literally the size of a truck and it has to fit in that machine to get tested.
Right now behind me they're running an air conditioner to lower the temperature of the
blue chamber to negative 40 degrees Celsius. So behind me is the shaker itself. Right now it's
positioned to shake the load in a horizontal way, but they can rotate... it's like a giant speaker
upright to shake the load vertically. This is the same setup that they use to test satellites
for the vibrations while satellites are being launched into space. Because it's
always way better to test it beforehand. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Now normally inside of a high voltage battery pack inside of an EV there's lots and lots of wires,
because each battery cell needs to be monitored for temperature and charging. There's just a
lot going on inside of an EV battery pack. One cool thing that GM has done though is
that they've made each of these battery modules wireless. Of course they still
have the high voltage lines running from the terminals which are right here on the edges,
but there are no BMS wires, or battery management system wires. Right here we have a bolt EV
battery pack where you can see a ton of battery management wires running around inside of it,
which makes it a lot harder to assemble, repair, and recycle at the end of the battery's lifespan.
Now, EV batteries last forever, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of miles.
And at the end of their vehicle lifespan they can still be turned into power walls
or help assist with DC fast charging when the cars are out, you know, charging on the road.
There are a lot of use cases for batteries as they go through their natural lifespan.
The Hummer EV truck gets released at the end of this year, 2021. And the Hummer EV
SUV gets released at the beginning of 2023. I'll have links and everything down in the
video description for pricing and availability, and those accessories that I talked about. But
electric vehicles are the future, and I'm super excited for where things are headed.
Come hang out with me on Twitter and Instagram. And hit that subscribe
button if you haven't already. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.