Petrol is taxed enormously

So you have a 350hp truck with a 8k-9k lbs towing capacity, which would actually be lower if if the SAE towing standard was used (Ram didn’t fully adopt them until 2015). So maybe 6k-7k lbs, or basically the capability of today’s midsize trucks.

Trucks have not been at these outputs for years. Sports cars are not running under load for hours on end, towing something while meeting SAE towing requirements. Those requirements include towing up a 7% grade at over 100*F ambient temps.

My brother has a marine service business. He doesn’t tow the boats far. Only a few miles between the ramp and his work area.

Yes its an X5, but the truck is on a sloping driveway.

The grill is so large because something with almost 1000 lb-ft of torque and can tow over 30k lbs (when properly equipped) requires a massive amount of cooling. 

Like you said. American roadways and infrastructure is designed to handle large vehicles. Fuel taxes are pretty much non-existent so fuel is cheap. People can therefore buy the largest vehicle they can that can handle any possible use. Even if they only actually use the bed a few times a year.

That hood line is why I made sure he got one with the parking sensors.

To be fair that Silverado has a suspension lift. This is my brother’s stock height 3500. Still enormous in person though. He actually uses it to tow big things.

Killing Pontiac wasn’t GM’s decision. GM had bigger plans for Pontiac. The G8 would continue and with the Ute version as the G8 ST. The G6 was going RWD on the Alpha platform etc.

GM is calling the shots in this.

GM’s EVs will be profitable. They would have lost a ton of money trying to continue the EV1, or trying to push EVs during the pickup and SUV boom in the 2000s.

Nikola and other companies like Honda are coming to GM for their EV expertise and platforms. GM isn’t desperate at all.

GM’s first battery factory is under construction in Ohio

China is the only other market GM is in in any significant volume. The only model in China that shares anything with the Bolt is the Velite 7 which hasn’t gone on sale yet in China. Maybe Velite 6 shares something. Other than that GM’s Chinese EVs are tiny cheap subcompacts which are not suitable for the US market.

GM has consolidated to only a few drive units and the same Ultium battery system will be used across their EV lineup. So yes I would expect the Escalade to have the same powertrain as the Hummer.

With this GM news, and recent news that they will be hiring 3000+ software and electronics engineers all to accelerate EV development, its obvious they were waiting on a certain political outcome before making these moves.

The Escalade EV was announced back in March

What does some other vehicle from almost 25 years ago have to do with development of vehicles today?

Another good one. I gave it a mention in another post.