Biden shows Morrison how it’s done in Hummer EV
It is a feeling surpassing strange to find yourself wishing that the President of the United States was in charge of your country, too, but after watching Joe Biden declaring his love for the new Hummer EV, and lauding his government’s US$7.5 billion investment in charging infrastructure, it’s hard not to see some attraction.
Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, obviously didn’t see the electric Hummer coming – despite its size – back in 2019, when he attached electric vehicles because they would not “tow your trailer”.
“It’s not going to tow your boat. It’s not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot with your family,” he said on the campaign trail just two years ago.
The Hummer EV is claimed to have 1000 horsepower (745kW) – or enough to tow every trailer in Morrison’s favourite caravan park, and a small moon besides – and a claimed 0 to 100km/h time of just three seconds.
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No wonder President Biden declared, after taking a test drive around a GM facility in Detroit: “These suckers are something else!”
Speaking in more detail afterwards, Biden, who was visiting the General Motors plant, Factory Zero, where it builds EVs, as part of a promotional tour to promote the passing of his country’s US$1 trillion infrastructure bill, added that the Hummer was “one hell of a vehicle, man.”
He also added: “Yo!”
A clearly over excited Biden went on to explain that he grew up in a car family.
“My dad ran the largest automobile dealership — he didn’t own it, just ran it — for 30 years in Delaware,” he explained.
“And so, I was raised on cars. And I have a 1967 Corvette that I got as a wedding gift when my deceased wife and I got married. My dad could afford the payments. He couldn’t afford to buy it.
“But the point was, I thought that was the Hell’s bells, man. It did 0 to 60 (mph, or 96km/h) in 5.3 seconds. This truck — three times heavier, 0 to 60 in three seconds. Woah!”
Unlike certain other national leaders, Biden is going out of his way to put his countrymen in electric vehicles, pledging that 50 percent of all new cars sales by 2030 will be electric (the same policy Bill Shorten took to the 2019 election, and which Morrison suggested would “end the weekend”).
Car companies and campaigners believe the US$7.5 billion injection into infrastructure will do a lot to help lift sales, which accounted for less than 2 percent of the US new-vehicle market in 2020 (it’s higher in some states than others, hitting 10.66 percent in California in the second quarter of 2021).
“In the auto industry, Detroit’s leading the world in electric vehicles,” Biden said.
“You know, up until now, China has been leading in this race. That’s about to change.”
Strangely, Biden did not mention Tesla, which makes up nearly 80 percent of all EV sales in the US, but uses a non-unionised workforce. Also, mentioning Tesla at a GM facility in Detroit may have been perilous to his health.
