The GMC Hummer EV is heavy, 9,063 pounds to be exact (and it can still pop wheelies). Part of the reason for this massive weight is the battery pack, which carries an almost military grade type of protection to keep any disaster from happening while on the road or out in the wild. As it should.
GM’s Ultium Battery Pack supplied by LG Chem. Image Via GM.
The Battery pack itself weighs 2,923 pounds, which is almost 1.5 tons. It takes a massive amount of juice to enable the vehicle’s Ultium drive motors to power up its advertised, and recently tested, 1,000 horsepower in WTF mode. The Hummer EV battery pack consists of 24-modules and a parallel cooling system to ensure consistent temperatures and deter overheating. The system is wired together in parallel fashion on a 400-volt circuit. That circuit can then be manipulated to mimic an 800-volt circuit that is able to welcome 350kW of juice during fast charging. This in turn provides the claimed 329 miles of range. This figure isn’t EPA rated and likely won’t be as with its curb weight being over 9,000 pounds qualifies it as a medium-duty truck, which the EPA doesn’t need to rate, so it won’t. GMC still puts the range on the Monroney Label for customer assurance anyway.
In an effort to ensure the Chevy Bolt fires are nothing more than a permanent memory, General Motors has done its due diligence in keeping the batteries of the Hummer EV heavily fortified. Multiple layers of metal act as a protective shield from the outside world.
Per The Drive, the outer layer is a solid steel plate that houses the battery and components. You can add an additional steel plate to this outer layer when you upgrade to the Extreme Off-Road Package. Inside that plate there are channeled layers of metal that sit perpendicular to one another for added rigidity and strength. At the innermost level there are structural metal frames that keep the modules separated. The casings themselves are assembled in Michigan with the help of Magna International. According to engineers, breaking through all of this armor would have to be theoretically be done by dropping the entire truck on a “hardened steel spike.”
The Hummer EV is tasked with showcasing unprecedented amounts of breakthrough technology from General Motors, the likes of which will also find itself on more volume oriented trucks and SUVs like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. To say it’s the most important vehicle GM has built in decades isn’t an exaggeration, and that’s probably why they made a documentary about it.
