2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV Uses Enormous Battery to Charge Other Electric Cars | Hacker News Reader

2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV Uses Enormous Battery to Charge Other Electric Cars

thedrive.com

20 pointsclouddrover21 comments

This from the first paragraph:

That’s because for 2024 the boxy off-roaders can now charge other EVs up to 6 kW with a new, onboard 19.2-kWh Level 2 charger. (Earlier Hummer EV Pickups can charge up to 11.5 kW.)

Has my head spinning trying to make sense of it all. It can charge at "up to 6 kW" I guess, that's the max power rating of the charger connection, then but missing that "at" makes it hard for me to parse. Not a native speaker, though.

Then it becomes even harder, why does the charger have a rating in kWh, which is an amount of energy? Is that amount somehow reserved in the battery, so after sharing 19.2 kWh, it turns off? That sounds ... weirdly non-helpful.

Finally: if earlier versions of the vehicle already had a charger but at a lower capacity/power/whatever, then this functionality isn't actually new?

Edit: also missed a word, oopsie.

Presumably the journo doesn't really understand the differences between power and energy. They probably just picked the numbers out of a press release.

It's even more confusing when they mention older vehicles charging at 11.5kW. All that being said, I'm not sure what utility is really being served by having the charger? I guess as a recovery method for stranded vehicles? Is it just a grid-power inverter?

The usecase makes sense even if actual buyers rarely use it. It's an offroading rig and being able to charge a buddy who's battery died getting stuck on a knob or some mud is a good thing. It's like the equivalent of carrying jumper cables to help others rather than to help yourself. It's nice helping out.

Following up though, my impressions from the original Hummer EV and other electric trucks is that they're so heavy, they easily get bogged down in sand and other wash. It's a real concern and I'm not sure what the solution is. They weigh so much more. Maybe big floaty tires?

non-technical folks never understand the difference between power and energy.

I once had legal find and replace all technically precise usage of power to energy in some marketing copy because they felt like we were flip flopping words too much to add flavor to our text. Sure, I'm guilty of that, but...really?

> Has my head spinning trying to make sense of it all.

I will stop your head spinning.

They added support for vehicle to load (V2L). It can output up to 6 kW. The onboard charger is also now faster and can accept up to 19.2 kW AC input as opposed to the previous 11.5 kW.

ASK HN:

Why should a person that weight about 80kg on average drag along with them a 4000 kg weight just to get around? That is easily 50 times their own weight.

And how does a civilization which claims to be concerned about damage to the environment caused by carbon dioxide, and toxic mining entertain such depraved behaviour if they truly believe that the world is coming to an end on account of environmental damage?

Then the same person moans that fuel costs are too high.

Am I missing something here?

I would say (imo) most of the target market of this Hummer EV are not the people who are primarily concerned about environmental damage. One could argue that this encourages people who are driving ICE-equivalent cars to make the jump to EV. I'm sure there are numbers on which is "less bad", I just have no idea what they are or what tradeoffs are being considered. I live in an area with a lot of smog, where the highest contributor to the local pollution is emission from ICE vehicles and there's a culture of rolling coal. I absolutely hate the people who make the modifications to their cars to pollute more but if this vehicle would convince them to switch to an EV, I think I'm for it! It's more on the theme of harm-reduction for me personally.

I actually am less concerned about the environmental damage that this EV would cause than I am about the precedent ("now that you're not limited by gas prices, you can get a giant truck!!") and the inevitable rise in pedestrian and bike deaths (and probably car deaths as well, as how many sedans are going to fare well against a car accident with this thing?).

Do you have an idea of how much carbon dioxide is expended in the production of the vehicle and its lithium batteries?

How much of the energy used in the manufacturing of this vehicle and its batteries comes from "clean" sources?

So called SUVs are no good for the environment and cities, EV or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo

Somebody tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm worried that EVs will follow the same trend as phones, in that the small form-factor models will be phased out by the market due to users' prioritization of long battery life.

As someone who walks/rides a bike whenever I can, I do not want even more upward pressure on vehicle sizes.

edit:typo

That trend is already happening: look at the prevalence of SUVs and gigantic trucks in the States. Many of them are tall enough that you wouldn't be able to see a kid, or even smaller cars, when they're right in front of you.

EDIT: my link was broken. But look it up: these trucks now have front-facing cameras so you can see what's right in front of you.

Yes, and what I'm saying is that EVs could make this trend even worse.

> Somebody tell me if I'm wrong

You're wrong. Smaller models are being phased in:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/volkswagen-confi...

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/volkswagen-id-2a...

I am glad to see that smaller models are an option, but I'm talking about an overall trend, not a rule that can be disproved by counterexamples.

I hope you're right that I'm wrong though.

I’ve never understood why you can’t charge a Tesla from another Tesla. It would help a lot with range anxiety.

The same functionality is available in Hyundai and Kia cars, so the enormous battery is not a prerequisite for this.

6kW AC is enough for a camping or as a backup power for a house, but for charging other EVs it's painfully slow. With a DC charger Hummer can charge literally 50 times faster than this.

What is the weight of the batteries in these vehicles?

Don't they weigh more than a small car?

A bit less than a Honda Civic:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a39049358/2022-gmc-hummer-...

This vehicle weighs nearly 4.8 tons, has a 212 kWh battery, gets 330 miles, and takes 600 Wh to go one mile.

The Ioniq 5 weights 2.1 tons, has a 56 kWh battery, gets 220 miles, and takes 264 Wh to go one mile.

Interesting, that means both have the same efficiency, 125 Wh per ton mile.

What is the point, GM has only made 2500 of then in over a year.

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