Whether its powered by fuel or batteries, a Hummer will always be a Hummer.
The rehabilitation of the Hummer has begun. The most militaristic of trucks, that gasoline glutton and public enemy of environmentalists, is reborn as an electric pickup, with an SUV version coming in 2023. But some things never change: The Hummer is all about excess. Now under GMCs brand wing, the Hummer launches from stoplights and into showrooms with 1,000 horsepower — actually 1,006 in its Watts To Freedom (WTF) mode — to help snare folks who might gravitate to a Rivian R1T, Ford Lightning or (someday) Tesla Cybertruck.
If there’s not enough baggage, the Hummer — the dying brand abandoned as GM stumbled through bankruptcy around 2009 — must shoulder the latest electric hopes and dreams of the “new” GM. That one-step-forward history includes GM’s seemingly sincere effort to transform itself into an all-electric automaker by 2035. The current two-steps-back are the Chevrolet Bolt battery fires and recall that remain sizzling fresh in some consumers’ minds.
GM is gearing up Hummer production at its Factory Zero plant in Detroit, though executives refuse to say how many it might actually produce, or how quickly — the better to whip up FOMO and get people lining up for reservations. (Can’t really blame them for aping the Tesla model, especially with every hot new car sparking a run on scarce dealer supplies). Yes, GM keeps pointing to 65,000 reservations — more like handraisers, at just $100 down — as proof of a done-deal hit. But we’ve seen GM (and a too-credulous media) strike a home-run pose on EVs too many times, just before the big whiff. For all its transformative plans, this company remains firmly in “show me” phase when it comes to electric cars.
For people of middle-class means, supply-and-demand will be moot: The Hummer Edition 1, priced at a dizzying $110,295, costs $40,000 more than a (pre-ordered) Rivian R1T, that 835-hp, physics-defying pickup that will run circles around the porkier Hummer on pavement — and is basically even-Stephen off-road, including a higher maximum ground clearance in motion. That price is also double the $55,000 for a Ford Lightning XLT, and $18,000 more than a top-shelf Lightning Platinum. Say it with me: That’s a lot of money, whatever the source of propulsion. With $20,000 down, you’re looking at a $1,700 monthly payment over 60 months. To its defense, the Hummer name has a history and notoriety (for better or worse) that the no-name Rivian, especially, can’t match.
An Arizona drive of the greener Hummer (in snow-white paint, the only available Edition 1 color) dispels some doubts, but not all. The Hummer looks bodacious, with its titanic prow, a mailslot-sized windscreen with three wipers, black cladding and pearlescent LED-lit grille. Pop off the four removable glass roof panels (which stack neatly in the frunk) and drop the power rear glass, and the Hummer becomes a chiseled tool for open-air desert or open-air shopping. Standard 35-inch Goodyear all-terrain tires look almost demure at this scale; those massive wells can fit aftermarket 37’s.
The Hummer doesn’t even seem that big or obnoxious anymore, not when seemingly every other American drives a skyscraping pickup or three-row SUV. Yet the Hummer makes a familiar statement, one that certain people will always hear as “screw you.” Defusing that reaction is a green olive branch: A 200-kilowatt-hour Ultium battery from LG Chem in South Korea (and eventually joint-ops GM/LG factories in three American cities, with 160 gigawatts of annual capacity). This is by far the largest, heaviest, priciest battery ever shoehorned into an EV. It’s 50 percent larger than Rivian’s 135 kWh pack and, on its own, weighs about 2,900 pounds, as much as a base Honda Civic.
Credit GM for a sophisticated, weight-bearing integral battery design, including industry-first wireless communications and monitoring between its 24 modules and pouch-style cells. This double stack of 400-volt packs can charge to mimic an 800-volt architecture. The Hummer can soak up current (but not actual miles) faster than nearly any current EV, maximizing the full monty from nascent 350-kilowatt DC public chargers. Several EVs will add range miles faster, despite charging “slower,” because the Hummer’s energy efficiency is the lowest by far of any EV on the planet: 51 mpge city, 43 highway, and 47 combined. Tesla’s three-row Model X delivers 105 mpge. Even the 835-hp Rivian ekes out 70 mpge, 50 percent better than the Hummer. Because the Hummer exceeds a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds, GM isn’t required to advertise that electron-guzzling mileage on window stickers — and unsurprisingly, has chosen not to.
Still, GM figures the Hummer can add 100 miles in a speedy 10 to 12 minutes on a 350-kW hookup; or charge from 20 to 80 percent in just over 40 minutes. Home or away, its Level 2 charging is also robust, drawing juice at up to 11.5 kilowatts. Buyers get a free home charger, paying only for installation. An empty-to-full charge on that Level 2 plug would still take 16 hours, because the battery is so freaking huge. But most daily-charging owners won’t be draining and cycling their batteries that dramatically.
The upshot is an EPA-rated 329-mile driving range, versus the Lightning’s 320 miles and 314 for Rivian. Power is fed through three electric motors, including two at the rear axle for propulsion and slick torque vectoring. Front and rear axles are fully independent and digitally coordinated, with no center differential. An adaptive, multi-link air suspension can boost a standard 10-inch ground clearance to 13 inches; or to nearly 16 inches for a low-speed Extract mode for emergency recovery.
Our test actually begins with launch-control runs in the shadow of the Arizona Cardinals’ football stadium. Step back, DeAndre Hopkins: This 4.5-ton truck can dash to 60 mph in a patently ridiculous 3.0 seconds. As foreplay, WTF lowers the body by 3.5 inches, vibrates the driver’s seat, plays an aural build-up through audio speakers (partly inspired by McFly dialing up his amp in “Back to the Future”) and optimizes the battery, inverter and systems for action. At launch, the Hummer pins me against the seat, its front wheels squealing as weight shifts rearward. Later, on a lonely Arizona road, I keep my foot in it to the Hummer’s 106-mph top speed. GM figures an 11.7-second quarter mile that’s deceptively slow, because the Hummer hits peak speed well before the full distance. The Hummer can tow a so-so 7,500 pounds or plop 1,300 pounds in its shorty bed, via its versatile six-way tailgate (familiar from the GMC Sierra) and its integrated bed step, cargo stop and Bluetooth radio and speakers.
Amusingly, a GM engineer tells me the Hummer can hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds – on gravel. I try that out as well, detouring to a lonely desert wash. Pro tip: Don’t stand behind the Hummer during that rock-spitting demo. Launches can be carried out one after another, an electric upchuck of 1,200 pound-feet of torque. In normal driving, max output is 960 hp. You won’t miss the extra. The Hummer’s accelerative soundtrack mixes actual powertrain noise with a digital mix inspired by Formula E racers, jet aircraft and (seriously) Canadian rocker Aldo Nova’s 1982 hit, “Fantasy.” And the Hummer delivers a solid (and level-adjustable) riff, like a futuristic bullet train shooting from the station.
Interior design sets a new bar for GM pickups. Yes, that bar is low. But it all looks contemporary and shipshape, even if materials don’t all rise to six-figure territory. When an EV has $20,000 worth of battery (at least) below decks, something’s got to give: A well-stuffed Ram 1500 looks more luxurious inside, as does GM’s Cadillac Escalade. Two-tone seats are wrapped in durable-looking, yet utilitarian textured fabric, with leather unavailable. Those seats also don’t offer anything in the way of luxury controls — no thigh extender, bolster adjustments or massage — with only the most basic lumbar support. Back-seat space is solid, with storage under the rear bench and more hidden behind rear back cushions.
The Hummer’s control strategy is a winner. A mix of sturdy analog toggle switches (and audio volume knob) and slick Google-based infotainment again drags GM into the modern age. A 13.4-inch center screen and 12.3 inch driver’s display feature map-topography-style graphics. Crisp animations, voice commands, wifi, apps and over-the-air updates, all present and accounted for.
The next morning, we drive to the Boulders OHV area, a set of desert off-road trails with rocky washes and a few eye-opening climbs. The Hummer, in its element, mops up at this moderately difficult trail. Its screen-selectable, one-pedal driving mode is brilliantly suited to off-roading, letting you tiptoe over obstacles and gently settle the truck with no left-foot braking required. Move to a more aggressive “L” mode (via the beefy console shifter) and the Hummer actually stops itself on the steepest grades, up or down, whenever you ease off the throttle. A virtual rear axle locker noticeably boosts traction from dual rear motors, and there’s a mechanical locker up front. Multiple driving modes include Off-Road for Baja-style blasts, and a Terrain mode for slower going. The GMC can ford 32 inches of water, with the battery guarded by five boron steel skid plates. “Ultravision” brings a choice of 18 camera views, including the underbody and tires both inboard or outboard. Cool screen widgets flash graphical off-road data, from body pitch and roll to wheel articulation.
The much-vaunted Crab Walk, as suspected, seems largely a gimmick — mainly for showing off while Crab Walking through South Beach. Certain rare trail situations may benefit from Crab Walk’s diagonal dance. But the four-wheel-steering behind it is the Hummer’s performance masterstroke. Up to 10 degrees of rear countersteer lets the Hummer maneuver in amazingly tight quarters without feeling like you’re wrestling a grizzly. That system trims the turning circle by seven feet to 37.4 feet, shorter than a Honda Accord’s. A highlight of the drive is watching rear wheels pivot on a Hummer ahead, virtually shortening its wheelbase and pivoting through tight corners and perilously exposed ridges like a much-smaller truck. Well played, GM.
It’s when the Hummer moves to pavement that the compromises become clear. Body roll is well-controlled, the ride reasonable. And with so much low-slung battery ballast, the Hummer will plow through curves at surprisingly heady speeds, like any EV. But aside from dust-them-all acceleration, there’s nothing entertaining about the drive. The steering is vague, the elephantine body slow to react to directional changes. It’s certainly no match for the Rivian (which weighs nearly 2,000 fewer pounds) and its uncanny, near-sports-sedan handling. Push hard, and the off-road tires, punished by 4.5 tons of mass, sing a song of lament: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my Hummer,” perhaps. Tire noise isn’t excessive, despite no engine to mask the whine of those knobby tires. But wind noise becomes a literal drag above 70 mph. Another plus is outstanding regen tuning, including a left-hand paddle shifter to boost recovery force (a la Volt and Bolt). You’ll rarely want or need to touch the physical pedal, which blends regen and friction braking. Those friction brakes, adapted from GM’s heavy-duty pickups, feel powerful and elicit confident stops, including after lunatic launch runs. (Thank God). But hard stops also make the Hummer’s highly-sprung nose dive toward earth like a bloodhound on the scent.
At times, it’s best to sit back and enjoy GM’s excellent SuperCruise semi-autonomous system, now with automated lane changes and an expanded 200,000 miles of mapped, geofenced operation on North American roads. Driving gently, I manage to keep the Hummer around 1.8 miles per kilowatt hour, which would result in a good 350 miles of real-world range.
Considering the sheer scale of the battery — nearly three times that of the Mustang Mach-e Standard Range — that driving range is hardly a bragging point. That’s especially true as automakers grapple with a near-unavoidable shortage of lithium-ion batteries in coming years. For automaker after automaker, rosy projections of massive EV sales don’t jibe with available battery capacity, even as GM and other companies race to scale up battery factories. To many experts, including Lucid founder and former Tesla chief engineer Peter Rawlinson, the answer is to boost EV efficiency, not battery size. Such truly energy-saving EVs would create a daisy chain of gains: Smaller battery packs required, to spread the total supply around, at reduced cost, size and weight — which further boosts overall performance and efficiency — and no major sacrifice in range. (A reliable public charging infrastructure is key to that strategy, so owners could be secure with a modest-range EV). Simply stuffing ever-more batteries and raw materials aboard, bloating weight and costs, so a subset of wealthy Americans can drive and preen in a 9,000-pound pickup truck, wasn’t supposed to be the program for EVs and climate change. No one is sure what the tech future holds, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a 2,900-pound battery in a single Hummer; enough to propel three or four conventional cars at vastly greater efficiency, if not to 60 mph in three seconds.
GM and Hummer aren’t alone in this, as EV makers vie for wealthy, style-conscious customers. GM clearly believes an electric powertrain can greenwash Hummer’s old image, like Robert Downey Jr. rehabbed from toxic untouchable to comeback movie star. I don’t mean to make the electron-huffing Hummer the whipping boy of the EV world. But some things never change: The Hummer brings it on itself.
Keyword: The Hummer EV Proves Some Things Never Change