General Motors’ first all-electric truck is here. Well, almost here because a lot of development work is still ahead for the GMC Hummer’s R&D team. The electric powertrain development is done but GM needs to develop, tweak, and fine-tune many other aspects of the zero-emission truck. In fact, basically, every single component of the new Hummer is unique.
MuscleCarsAndTrucks recently had the chance to chat with GM’s Vehicle Performance Engineer Todd Hubbard and asked him whether the GMC Hummer EV shares any of its parts with GM’s other trucks. The answer was simple: “I don’t think there’s any.”
The revived Hummer rides on GM’s BT1 platform which – while named pretty similar to the Chevrolet Silverado’s T1 architecture – doesn’t share any parts with the company’s other platforms. Still, the design of the production Hummer is not completely done which leaves the door open for integration of some parts from other GM trucks.
However, the new BT1 platform will most likely be scaled to fit all future General Motors’ electric vehicles in the near future. It is almost a given that the Ultium battery technology will be used in every GM EV in different forms, including the electric version of the Chevrolet Silverado truck.
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All that said, it’s interesting that Ford and General Motors are taking two very different approaches when it comes to their first electric trucks. While GM has decided to use a bespoke architecture, Ford has gone a different route by developing the electric F-150 on the same platform as the combustion-powered models. Which strategy will turn out to be more profitable? Only time will tell.