Electric trucks are the hottest kind of electric car

Even a handful of years ago, a few of us would have really believed that the hottest thing in electric cars would be electric trucks. But that's exactly what's going on right now. The new electric Hummer, the Tesla cybertruck. They are causing a lot of folks to sit up in Didn't take notice. Let's talk about why and why you would be forgiven for thinking they come from different planets. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Electric Hummer is coming to market in late 21. We're taping in early April here today. It's going to be trickling out in varying models though starting with the most expensive three motor loaded up best addition. Then over a period of years until early 24. They roll out increasingly affordable models. I hate how to Detroit is crib that page from Tesla's playbook But they have the Tesla Cybertruck also promised for end of 21. Now it's coming from Tesla. So we've got to take that with a bigger grain of salt than coming from a company like GM. We don't really have as much conflict. Students in Tesla making that date or making it at scale. But these are both late 21 stories from full market test in 2022. These two could not look more different The Hummer looks like honors have always looked, you'll recognize one immediately. In fact, you may not even realize it's a new electric Hummer. If you're not a car buff, it's that much in the DNA of past Hummers right before they cancelled the line. Big broad shouldered, think square everywhere you look. The Tesla cybertruck is a completely different story. The first time you see one of these in the wild, you may not know what you're looking at or you'll think it's someone transporting a movie prop car from soundstage to a warehouse. It's just a radically different thing and you may say good, a car maker finally did something really audacious with styling. Or you may say that's the longest April Fool's joke anyone's ever played. [SOUND] Since the cybertruck, was introduced in November of 2019, I assume the design would grow on me. It hasn't. [MUSIC] Now the Cybertruck has always been shown devoid of side-view mirrors. Assumedly using rear-facing cameras that give you an image on the dash. General Motors on the other hand is a grown-up company, and they know that's not legal in America. So, they show the Hummer prototypes having traditional. Mirrors on the other hand, they make up for that wow factor by having up to 18 cameras around the new Hummer, including one underneath the thing. And the last thing around exterior appearance is color. The new Hummer will come in a variety of paint shades, the cybertruck doesn't use any [BLANK_AUDIO] Now of course, you'll spend most of your time inside your new electric truck not outside looking at the thing. GM is big on things like the two giant billboard screens that stand up at you. Very squared off details everywhere. The two largest segments I think ever put into vehicle production. And they still like big knobs and buttons that you can operate with your car hard gloves on hadn't done the jobsite on a cold morning. The cabin of the cybertruck on the other hand appears to have been designed by one of the same firms that designs maximum security prisons. Everything is very kind of nothing There's not much there except to one big central display and the rest is Spartan Ville. We'll see how well that plays with the truck crowd that tends to expect a more tactile control oriented button and knob cabin. And the Hummer can go topless. The Tesla always has a fixed roof, though it is transit. [MUSIC] When it comes to pricing, the Tesla Cybertruck seems to have it all over the electric commerce to the point that you almost wonder if it's a loss leader, a tri motor Cybertruck top and even option with Tesla's absurdly named $10,000 full self driving option. It's about 80 grand, that's almost 33 less than a tri motor Hummer at launch. on the low end, a base dual motor cybertruck can be had they say for 40 although Tesla's promised base prices before that never really materialized. [MUSIC] But if so that's almost 40 grand less than the least expensive dual motor Hummer on the pre order menu. Now of course these two vehicles are going to vary considerably in equipment technologies used and as we've seen in their general form factor, but still this price comparison is so stark. It's worth noting, [MUSIC] [MUSIC] The new Hummer top model is going to top out at 350 miles of range, the cybertruck a massively greater 500 miles on their top model. Now normally when you get into these ranges, I start to say okay, this is turning into an automaker range arms race that isn't relevant. charging infrastructure is more relevant But, but with trucks, I play a different tune because they can and will be called upon frequently. I hope to go out to where there's no charging infrastructure and go out there for a while, maybe a day or a weekend and while they're there, make use of their battery capacity to run things off the power outlets in the bed. So when it comes to an electric truck yeah, I get real interested in maximum range slash maximum battery capacity. As for charging when you're around town, the top and Hummer has a very different charging apparatus than the lower end model. It's an 800 volts and one of the tri motor big boys that they say can put almost 100 miles back into the Hummer. In as little as 10 minutes, on the other hand, Tesla's got the supercharger network, which is damned impressive and very widespread at this point. Buy a cheaper Hummer and you get a much cheaper roughly half as potent charging rig on board. [MUSIC] No i'm not a hardcore truck person. You wanna see Emmy Haul about that, but I don't think most buyers of either of these will be hardcore truckies that's just not the way things usually work out. So let's look at some baseline specs. Towing, the cybertruck promises to tell them more than anything that doesn't have a Freightliner badge on it. 14,000 pounds. On the other hand, we don't have a towing number yet for the Hummer as of today April 6 of 21. That'll be pending. I expect that and payload will be plenty stout. This is coming from GMC, they're not going to **** around. They know what the market demands. [BLANK_AUDIO] The acceleration on either of these trucks is something that would have been a pipe dream for Ferrari 10 or 15 years ago. There are three second or less vehicles zero to 60. Unbelievable and kind of silly. Hummer has made a big deal of most models being able to crab walk as they call it, kind of this parallelogram driving pattern. Or to pick up six inches of ground clearance instantly and extract mode. The Hummer has one of those six way multifunction tailgates that have kind of a big crowd pleasers across the GMC and Chevy world. On the other hand, the cybertruck has this armored roll top cover over the bed. That turns the whole back of the thing into a vault. And as I mentioned, GMC just announced they're gonna have a SUV body style for the Hummer. Tesla doesn't have that in the cybertruck pipeline not yet. The Tesla cybertruck at a quick glance would seem to have it all over the Hummer, on range, on price and on that supercharger network plus the Tesla brand. Means electric vehicles right? That can help in the marketplace. On the other hand, the styling of the Cybertruck makes it look like Tesla hates us. And we can't entirely count on the company to deliver what it says it will at scale, nor to deliver the very lowest cost models ever in some cases. General Motors on the other hand, we know what they do. They build trucks for a living and they're very good at it. And the Hummer comes from a highly loved though niche brand that has previous momentum. Bottom line is the most reassuring thing about either of these trucks is that they require just a $100 deposit and it's fully refunded. Go have fun. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]