Exploring the Wilderness: A Closer Look at the New Hummer EV Earth Cruiser

28 August 2023, 14:07
PiataAuto.md editors

When we say car for long expeditions in the wilderness, we don’t think of an electric car in the first place, do we? But those at General Motors are trying to convince us that the new Hummer EV Earth Cruiser, with its 4.5 tons of curb weight, can be a car with which you dare to go where there is no more civilization or plugs loading. Let’s see what this new electric car, which claims to be so adventurous, has to offer.

The new Earth Cruiser is, in essence, a Hummer EV pick-up that has been fitted with an integrated house over its hood and roof. The electric propulsion system is the same, with 3 electric motors, and the huge battery remained present, having about 248 kWh of total capacity and 212-214 kWh of net capacity. The battery alone weighs almost 1.5 tons, and the whole car would normally weigh about 4.3-4.4 tons, and with all the home construction on wheels, it exceeds 4.5 tons!

Inside, the roof rises when the car is stationary and thus makes room above a bed, with a panoramic view all around. There’s also a small galley on board and a few other essentials for an expedition vehicle, and it all looks as good as it gets considering how limited the available space was.

The autonomy of a Hummer EV without these additional elements that reduce aerodynamics is about 290-305 miles, so about 470-480 km. With them, it will probably be at least 20 km shorter, not to mention the additional weight. However, the creators of this car promised to have solutions for isolated areas in the wilderness, so let’s see what those solutions are.

It’s about an additional battery on board, for the energy necessary for life in the wild, that is, for the electric stove, for the small refrigerator and other similar equipment. That extra battery is only 6 kWh. In addition, the Hummer EV Earth Cruiser has solar panels, from which to produce its electricity, and here comes the big secret. These panels have 605 W of power and they charge this 6 kWh battery on board, the electricity being used for the comfort of life in the wild. The Hummers admit that the solar energy put into it during the day might not be enough for all the conveniences, but having the battery full at the beginning and then recharging, the battery will reach exhaustion in about a week.

We would have expected those panels to be able to charge the battery of this electric car, right? The American manufacturer chose not to mention anything about it, limiting itself to the fact that the panels are meant to charge the small battery on board and that’s it. But the workshop that partnered with Hummer, to create this model, says that they were foresight and created a function by which the energy put from the panels into the small battery can charge the car’s large battery, if needed. Only that would mean giving up the auxiliary amenities. Theoretically, the function is designed so that when you are stuck somewhere, maybe, without energy, you can collect at least a few kWh, so that you can go to the port. Because if you were to sit and charge this Hummer EV complete with panels, it would take an enormous amount of time.

If we consider the 605 W maximum capacity of the panels and an average of 400 W, available in the best case for 12 hours a day during the summer period, this means 0.40 kWh of electricity generated per hour, or 4.8 kWh of electricity per day. And as the Hummer EV’s battery has over 210 kWh of electricity, it would mean charging it in 44 days of summer! And as winter is not like summer, and in isolated areas you can sometimes have less sun, de facto, you can reach 2-3 months of living without conveniences to charge the battery of this Hummer EV from its panels. Of course, no one would charge the entire car battery from the sun, but only the strictly necessary to get somewhere. But still, to say that the car comes with solutions for the wilderness is a bit ambitious. Or, the problem with charging for a month and a half or two is that sometimes you will want to turn on the stove, the refrigerator, and the air conditioner, and thus spending a little more energy, you will end up in a circle where the energy does not it practically adds to the battery. And if we also take into account that this car also has a small discharge of the battery when stationary, the whole equation will result in a perpetuum charge, even for the most stubborn adventurers, who will live for several months in the wilderness, on the spot, hoping to gather electricity to get out of there.

However, if we treat it as a car with limited autonomy, taking into account that it is not inspired to go very far with it, then the expedition house on board has some interesting equipment, which we can see in the video above down.

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