GMC Slows Electric Hummer Charge as Lincoln Pulls Plug on Rivian-Built SUV
The word from GM: “Not yet.” The subject: The new GMC Hummer EV, an all-electric truck with supercar performance numbers that the GMC brand planned to unveil May 20.
Related: 7 Things We Want to See in an Electric Hummer
That big reveal is no longer going to happen, GM said in a statement this week, and instead has been delayed to later this year (the company did not specify exactly when). Fear not, however, as GM assures us that development of the truck is still occurring despite the shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders that have gripped most of the country for the past two months.
The company says it still plans production of the new truck later this year — and when it arrives, it still plans to impress. This Hummer’s specs are jaw-dropping, such as the 0-60-mph time of 3.0 seconds thanks to a powertrain making up to 1,000 horsepower and a seemingly impossible 11,500 pounds-feet of torque (the math on that one seems fuzzy).
Conversely, the word from Lincoln is: “Not anymore.” A report from Crain’s Detroit Business says that Lincoln dealers were informed earlier this week that a planned new premium SUV developed jointly with upstart EV truckmaker Rivian has been canceled. Ford invested $500 million in Rivian last year, and announced in January that it would be jointly developing a new electric vehicle for the Lincoln brand using Rivian’s novel “skateboard” EV architecture that would look very different from Rivian’s own upcoming R1S. Lincoln reportedly cited the “current conditions” (meaning the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus crisis) as the reason for canceling the program.
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The pandemic and its effect on the global economy has a lot of people wondering about the future of EV development, just as the vehicles were really set to start taking off as mainstream offerings by major global automakers. With gasoline at record low prices due to supply gluts and automaker profits obliterated due to tanking global sales, continuing with expensive new technology development programs may become a difficult sell in corporate boardrooms. While GMC insists that this is just a delay to the Hummer EV reveal and that production is on track to begin later this year, one wonders if the market will be as interested in a super-expensive luxury EV truck if the economy continues to worsen.
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