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GM Pulling a GM? Hummer to possibly return as EV brand?


rmc523

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https://www.autoblog.com/2019/10/18/hummer-electric-gm-hamtramck/

 



 General Motors plans to build a new family of premium electric pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant beginning in late 2021, possibly reviving the imposing Hummer brand with some of them, several people familiar with the plans said.

The so-called BT1 electric truck/SUV program is the centerpiece of a planned $3 billion investment in the Detroit-Hamtramck plant to make electric trucks and vans, and part of a broader $7.7 billion investment in GM's U.S. plants over the next four years, according to a proposed labor deal between the automaker and the United Auto Workers union.

 

GM's BT1 program includes an electric pickup for the GMC brand and an electric SUV for Cadillac, both due in 2023, the sources said.

Before then, GM plans to begin low-volume production in late 2021 of the first BT1 model, a pickup, under a different brand, the source said. A performance variant of the pickup will be added to that brand in 2022, followed by an electric SUV in 2023.

One of the sources said the Hummer name is "under consideration," but a decision has not been finalized. The pickup is codenamed "Project O."

...

The pickups and SUVs in the BT1 family will use a new dedicated electric vehicle architecture, including a "skateboard" chassis that bundles electric motor and batteries, the sources said. Fiorani expects the GM electric truck to sell at around $90,000 or more, while the other vehicles will easily top $100,000.

 

 

More at link above.

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2-3 years behind Ford?  Sounds about right.

 

Why does GM start so many things but then either abandon them or never finish them?  It's like they have no corporate strategy just a bunch of independent vehicle developers.

 

First electric vehicle - abandoned.

First mild hybrids.   Never did full hybrids.

Volt - 50 mile plug in hybrid.   Never expanded tech to other vehicles except for ELR which was a disaster.

Bolt - 200 mile BEV.  Never expanded tech to other vehicles (until now).  Wouldn't surprise me if the new stuff is totally different and Bolt was just abandoned anyway.

 

Bankruptcy never changed that mindset for some reason.

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2 hours ago, 02MustangGT said:

Ford does the same thing in case you haven’t noticed.  

 

Definitely. All of Ford's BEV efforts in the U.S. market up until now have been science fair projects they never took seriously and eventually abandoned. And their marketing of hybrids was only slightly better, with the C-Max Hybrid and Energi being discontinued completely, Fusion Hybrid and Energi on the chopping block after 2020, and Escape Hybrid taking a hiatus after 2012 before coming back for 2020.

 

To their credit, both Ford and GM seem to understand now that electric vehicles represent the whole automotive industry's future, not some fad. Hopefully it's full speed ahead without stopping for both companies' EV programs.

 

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On 10/25/2019 at 5:33 PM, rperez817 said:

 

Definitely. All of Ford's BEV efforts in the U.S. market up until now have been science fair projects they never took seriously and eventually abandoned. And their marketing of hybrids was only slightly better, with the C-Max Hybrid and Energi being discontinued completely, Fusion Hybrid and Energi on the chopping block after 2020, and Escape Hybrid taking a hiatus after 2012 before coming back for 2020.

 

To their credit, both Ford and GM seem to understand now that electric vehicles represent the whole automotive industry's future, not some fad. Hopefully it's full speed ahead without stopping for both companies' EV programs.

 

 

As fuzzy pointed out, they purposely did that and made C-Max their hybrid model in an effort to create their own "Prius".  It was doing well before both mileage adjustments, when sales plummeted.

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12 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

Neither of those things happened at the same time. 

 

But it also didn't help-the C-Max story broke Summer 2013

Gas prices during that time period:
 

2013 3.319 3.670 3.711 3.570 3.615 3.626 3.591 3.574 3.532 3.344 3.243 3.276
  2014 3.313 3.356 3.533 3.661 3.673 3.692 3.611 3.487 3.406 3.171 2.912 2.543
 
  2015 2.116 2.216 2.464 2.469 2.718 2.802 2.794 2.636 2.365 2.290 2.158 2.038
  2016 1.949 1.764 1.969 2.113 2.268 2.366 2.239 2.178 2.219 2.249 2.182 2.254
Edited by silvrsvt
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2 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

 

But it also didn't help-the C-Max story broke Summer 2013

Gas prices during that time period:
 

2013 3.319 3.670 3.711 3.570 3.615 3.626 3.591 3.574 3.532 3.344 3.243 3.276
  2014 3.313 3.356 3.533 3.661 3.673 3.692 3.611 3.487 3.406 3.171 2.912 2.543
 
  2015 2.116 2.216 2.464 2.469 2.718 2.802 2.794 2.636 2.365 2.290 2.158 2.038
  2016 1.949 1.764 1.969 2.113 2.268 2.366 2.239 2.178 2.219 2.249 2.182 2.254

 

Thank you for proving my point. The MPG adjustment ranked sales and low gas prices came about a year later and kept them there. 

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18 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

 

Thank you for proving my point. The MPG adjustment ranked sales and low gas prices came about a year later and kept them there. 

 

They dropped 20% in 2014 which had to be due to mpg, but they also dropped another 20% in 2015 which was probably gas prices.

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1 hour ago, probowler said:

The Cmax also wasn't much to look at.   Looks obviously didn't help the prius, but you gotta have the mpgs to back it all up. 


Another theory was that Prius owners liked the unique look because they wanted people to know they were driving a hybrid.  I thought the same strategy would work for cmax but I was wrong.

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On 11/3/2019 at 9:15 AM, fuzzymoomoo said:

 

It could have but the C-Max design was a little too conservative IMO. 

 

It didn't help that the interior was plucked straight out of the Escape. It was essentially a worse looking, slightly less capable version of a vehicle they already had. 

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  • 2 months later...
28 minutes ago, T-dubz said:

https://jalopnik.com/hummer-is-coming-back-as-an-electric-off-road-pickup-by-1840935587

 

jalopnik says it won’t be its own brand but it will be a gmc truck called hummer. They also say it will be shown during the Super Bowl with lebron as the spokesman.

Honestly, that seems like the best strategy.  Chevy needs a tough 4x4 SUV and the Hummer name should catch people's attention.  The electric gimmick seems highly unnecessary, but we'll see how it does.  

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1 hour ago, probowler said:

Honestly, that seems like the best strategy.  Chevy needs a tough 4x4 SUV and the Hummer name should catch people's attention.  The electric gimmick seems highly unnecessary, but we'll see how it does.  

Yep, no different than Ford using the Mustang name on the Mach-E.  Brand recognition and marketing.  

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