General Motors’ GM Defense division has unveiled a new military electric vehicle based on the GMC Hummer EV. The vehicle has now gone full circle from military Humvee to Hummer to Hummer EV to military Humvee electric.
When you think about making vehicles electric, the Hummer is not the first one that comes to most people’s minds. Yet, the Hummer EV was the first next-generation electric vehicle using GM’s new Ultium electric platform.
It’s a very low-volume EV program that wasn’t believed to have a major impact on electrification, but it is starting to have a significant indirect impact, with GM using what it has learned from the Hummer to produce the new Silverado Electric.
Now the Hummer EV is also spawning new vehicle programs, like this new “Electric Military Concept Vehicle” (eMCV), via Breaking Defense:
It is somewhat ironic, considering the original gas-powered Hummer was basically a civilian version of the military Humvee, and now, we have a military version of the civilian Hummer.
GM Defense unveiled the new concept at the Marine Military Expo in Washington, DC, this week.
The eMCV features the same chassis and powertrain as the Hummer EV, which is powered by a massive 200 kWh battery pack.
With different aerodynamics and weight, the vehicle is expected to have a slightly lower range than the current 329 miles of the Hummer EV, but a GM Defense spokesperson told expo attendees that it should have about 300 miles of range. They also equipped the vehicle with a diesel range extender if needed.
GM Defense already had an EV program with the US Army, but it had a 66 kWh battery pack, which appeared to be based on GM’s previous generation of electric vehicles.
Now the company has added the specs of the Hummer EV on the page of its eISV vehicle program and confirmed that it had provided the US Army with a Hummer EV for testing:
The U.S. Army selected GM Defense to provide the GMC HUMMER EV Pickup for analysis and demonstration to help support the Army’s reduced reliance on fossil fuels in operational and garrison environments.
Last year, the US Army said that it is going electric and wants to be net-zero by 2050.
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