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2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 Prototype Drive Review | Let the supertruck wars begin

MILFORD, Mich. — Hummer is high on the list of vehicles we never thought would return. The gas-guzzling brutes met their demise more than a decade ago as the industry pivoted briefly to smaller cars and General Motors shed brands during its historic restructuring. Fast-forward to 2022, and HummerÂ’s revival is at hand thanks to yet another industry shift, this time to electric propulsion. ItÂ’s expensive, itÂ’s still huge and the numbers are eye-popping to the tune of 1,000 horsepower. America loves a comeback — but it loves trucks more. We briefly tested the 2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 truck at the GM Proving Grounds 40 miles northwest of Detroit. Weeks from now, Hummers will start rolling off the line at GMÂ’s EV site, dubbed Factory Zero, in the Motor City. While the Hummer SUV will undoubtedly prove its worth, GM is leading with the pickup, ambitiously calling it a supertruck and eagerly touting its metrics and mojo-generating features, like CrabWalk, against the Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck, as well as gas-powered off-roaders like the Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram 1500 TRX, plus various Jeep and Land Rover SUVs. (Here's our latest supertruck spec comparo). All of them have impressed us (save the Cybertruck, which only Jay Leno and a few others have driven), but the Hummer is formidable in its own right. For one thing, itÂ’s a Hummer. The negative connotations of the old Hummers melt away when thereÂ’s a 24-module Ultium battery pack powering three motors for a range of 350-plus miles on a single charge. The old model was divisive, but a lot of people paid a lot of money for them simply because they looked very cool. HummerÂ’s familiar grille makes it bold return on our tester that looms high on its 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT tires. It certainly looks the part of a supertruck. The cabin is roomy and airy, with the removable sky panels letting in the bright fall morning. Hummer EV chief engineer Al Oppenheiser is our co-pilot for our test, and after a quick walk-through, weÂ’re off.  The first order of business is simply mashing the throttle. The Edition 1 serves up about 1,200 pound-feet of torque, and you can make use of all of that and the four-figure horsepower to hit 60 mph in about 3 seconds. We accelerate hard, blasting over some soft ground before things get a little squirrelly and can confirm the claimed time feels legit.

Big electric trucks won't save the planet, says the NYT

When The New York Times decides that an issue is an issue, be prepared to read about it at length. Rarely will a week passes these days when the esteemed news organization doesn’t examine the realities, myths and alleged benefits and drawbacks of electric vehicles, and even The Atlantic joins in sometimes. That revolution, marked by changes in manufacturing, consumer habits and social “consciousness,” may in fact be upon us. Or it may not. Nonetheless, the newspaper appears committed to presenting to the public these pros and cons. In this recently published article titled, “Just How Good for the Planet Is That Big Electric Pickup Truck?”—wow, thatÂ’s a mouthful — the Times focuses on the “bigness” of the current and pending crop of EVs, and how that impacts or will impact the environment and road safety. This is not what news organizations these days are fond of calling “breaking news.” In October, we pointed to an essay in The Atlantic that covered pretty much the same ground, and focused on the Hummer as one particular villain, In the paper and online on Feb. 18, the Times' Elana Shao observes how “swapping a gas pickup truck for a similar electric one can produce significant emissions savings.” She goes on: “Take the Ford F-150 pickup truck compared with the electric F-150 Lightning. The electric versions are responsible for up to 50 percent less greenhouse gas emissions per mile.” But she right away flips the argument, noting the heavier electric pickup trucks “often require bigger batteries and more electricity to charge, so they end up being responsible for more emissions than other smaller EVs. Taking into consideration the life cycle emissions per mile, they end up just as polluting as some smaller gas-burning cars.” Certainly, itÂ’s been drummed into our heads that electric cars donÂ’t run on air and water but on electricity that costs money, and that the public will be dealing with “the shift toward electric SUVs, pickup trucks and crossover vehicles, with some analysts estimating that SUVs, pickup trucks and vans could make up 78 percent of vehicle sales by 2025." No-brainer alert: Big vehicles cost more to charge. And then thereÂ’s the safety question, which was cogently addressed in the Atlantic story. Here Shao reiterates data documenting the increased risks of injuries and deaths caused by larger, heavier vehicles.

Are orphan cars better deals?

Most folks don't know a Saturn Aura from an Oldsmobile Aurora. Those of you who are immersed in the labyrinth of automobilia know that both cars were testaments to the mediocrity that was pre-bankruptcy General Motors, and that both brands are now long gone. But everybody else? Not so much. By the same token, there are some excellent cars and trucks that don't raise an eyebrow simply because they were sold under brands that are no longer being marketed. Orphan brands no longer get any marketing love, and because of that they can be alarmingly cheap. Case in point, take a look at how a 2010 Saturn Outlook compares with its siblings, the GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave. According to the Manheim Market Report, the Saturn will sell at a wholesale auto auction for around $3,500 less than the comparably equipped Buick or GMC. Part of the reason for this price gap is that most large independent dealerships, such as Carmax, make it a point to avoid buying cars with orphaned badges. Right now if you go to Carmax's site, you'll find that there are more models from Toyota's Scion sub-brand than Mercury, Saab, Pontiac, Hummer, and Saturn combined. This despite the fact that these brands collectively sold in the millions over the last ten years while Scion has rarely been able to realize a six-figure annual sales figure for most of its history. That is the brutal truth of today's car market. When the chips are down, used-car shoppers are nearly as conservative as their new-car-buying counterparts. Unfamiliarity breeds contempt. Contempt leads to fear. Fear leads to anger, and pretty soon you wind up with an older, beat-up Mazda MX-5 in your driveway instead of looking up a newer Pontiac Solstice or Saturn Sky. There are tons of other reasons why orphan cars have trouble selling in today's market. Worries about the cost of repair and the availability of parts hang over the industry's lost toys like a cloud of dust over Pigpen. Yet any common diagnostic repair database, such as Alldata, will have a complete framework for your car's repair and maintenance, and everyone from junkyards to auto parts stores to eBay and Amazon stock tens of thousands of parts. This makes some orphan cars mindblowingly awesome deals if you're willing to shop in the bargain bins of the used-car market. Consider a Suzuki Kizashi with a manual transmission. No, really.