LOS ANGELES - A Hummer H3T truck is displayed prior to the start of the 2004 Greater LA Auto Show ... [+]
Imagine a Hummer with batteries – yes, all electric – plugged by LeBron James in a Super Bowl ad.
Indeed, General Motors plans to revive the fossil-fuel swilling brand that died 11 years ago in the wreckage of the taxpayer-funded bailout. The Hummer name will rise again on an electric GMC pickup truck, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
King James will be the revival’s pitchman in the Super Bowl spot guaranteed to generate viral social media chatter. The real-world market appeal of such a vehicle remains uncertain.
The truck is expected to go on sale by early 2022, and planning volumes are modest. GMC plans to target off-road enthusiasts who hopefully won’t see an electric powertrain as too wimpy.
That is quite a contrast with Hummer’s original image. Customers were attracted to the bigger-is-badder appeal as housing prices soared and gas prices fell. Then reality bit. The Great Recession took its toll.
Reinventing the symbol of wasteful energy into an environmentally upright citizen in the age of radical climate change may require more talent than LeBron can deliver. There’s not much regulatory pressure to electrify large vehicles.
The Trump administration is rolling back Obama-era fuel economy standards and waging a legal war with California over limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
The outcome of November’s election could change that, but Hummer carries more than a little baggage.
Bloomberg News first reported last summer that GM was mulling Hummer’s resurrection as a more eco-correct electrified vehicle. The move comes against the backdrop of Ford’s $500 million investment in Rivian, a Plymouth, Michigan-based startup that plans to begin producing an electric pickup and SUV by the end of 2020.
Rivian has shown a five-passenger pickup, the R1T, and a seven-passenger SUV, the R1S. Both models are expected to deliver 400 miles or more of range on a full -charge, without sacrificing utility and off-road capability of gas-fueled trucks.
Ford and Rivian, with help from a large investment from Amazon, also are working on an all-electric version of the F-150 pickup, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. over the last four decades.
The Journal reports that there are no plans to market Hummer as a stand-alone brand as it was before GM’s bankruptcy, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan.
The new truck will be sold under the GMC umbrella, GM’s premium truck and SUV brand that has flourished as American consumers have moved, almost en mass, from passenger cars to pickups, SUVs and crossovers.
The jury is out on whether truck buyers are interested in moving from gas pumps to recharging stations. Towing capacity and rugged off-road prowess are essential to their decisions. Another unanswered question is whether battery costs, which are falling, will decline enough to bring the manufacturing cost of electric trucks in line with their gas-fueled ancestors.
Tesla last year unveiled a different-looking Cybertruck that it claims will be ready for market by late 2021.
Pickup trucks and large SUVs are the financial lifeblood for GM, Ford and FiatChrysler, which is soon to merge with France’s Groupe PSA. But they have struggled to sell any electric models in large volumes.
