2022 GMC Hummer EV: Hummer Is Back With 1,000 Electric Horsepower and a $112,595 Price Tag

From gas guzzler to battery-powered “supertruck”: Hummer is back to lead GM’s EV charge.

byCaleb Jacobs|
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If the anticipation for GMC's new Hummer electric truck has been too much for you to bear, then we've got good news—it's here! Well, sort of. It's at least been revealed with its 1,000-horsepower, tri-motor drivetrain; crab-walking four-wheel-steering system; adaptive air suspension and other high-end doodads. It's the pinnacle of EV off-roaders so far and at $112,595, it's priced like it, too.

For that, customers can own a 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 late next year. They'll all be painted in white with what GMC calls a Lunar Horizon interior, highlighted by an Infinity Roof with pop-out Sky Panel inserts that are stowable in the truck's frunk. You know, where the engine would be if it ran on gas—which it obviously did last time.

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An EV Rebirth

In case you forgot, General Motors acquired the Hummer brand from AM General in the late 1990s and it quickly started turning out hulking SUVs for the passenger truck market—the big H2, the smaller H3 and the original H1, the civilian version of the Humvee. Hummer was wildly successful for a time, but that was contingent on gas staying cheap. When oil prices spiked into the late 2000s, demand tanked and the brand was discontinued in 2008 amid GM's bankruptcy.

Now Hummer's back as a GMC-branded truck, and it's all-electric, which may mitigate some of the environmental criticism it encountered last time. 

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The Hummer utilizes a three-motor setup to drive all four wheels with a "GM-estimated" 1,000 hp, as well as a hard-to-believe torque rating of 11,500 pound-feet. That second number sounds especially crazy but GMC almost definitely used an unusual method to calculate that output. See, Tesla did the same with its Roadster a few years back when it published the rated wheel torque, not the engine torque number that's traditionally released. They might be able to get away with it since they technically don't have engines, but as pointed out before by Car and Driver, the Hummer's actual torque rating is probably closer to 800 pound-feet. Still pretty impressive.

The Hummer's electric motors get their juice from a new Ultium battery system, the product of a partnership with LG Chem. They'll be built at the companies' new battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and they'll also pack some stellar charging tech. GMC claims 800-volt DC fast-charging capabilities, providing a guesstimated range of 350 miles in little to no time at all. 

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It's Fast, Too, And It'll Crawl

When you're ready to get rid of that charge in a hurry, you can simply launch the Hummer EV to 60 mph in just (a claimed) three seconds. That's more than respectable for such a hefty truck, especially when you consider its big tires—take the available 35-inch Goodyear all-terrains, for example.

Those tires contribute to the pickup's overall off-road-readiness, which is further bolstered by—you guessed it—more tech. First off is the Hummer's CrabWalk functionality, which utilizes four-wheel-steering to help move the rig from side to side. We've seen it in action before, and it's clear how useful this feature can be when traversing tricky obstacles. Plus, it's not every day that you see a truck with four-wheel-steering but when you pay six figures for one, you'll be happy to have it.

The same can be said for the adaptive air suspension and its related Extract Mode, which raises the Hummer by as much as six inches when drivers get in a precarious position. GMC hasn't elaborated on this very much, for what it's worth, but the suspension likely "airs up" to give the pickup more ground clearance, helping it climb over rocks and through deep mud.

Should you find yourself concerned about nearby obstacles in your blindspots, just know the Hummer has very few of those. That's thanks to a system of cameras strategically placed around the exterior that gives the driver 18 viewable angles, from corner to corner as well as directly in front of or behind the truck. This'll come in handy when driving off-road, of course, but it'll also help eliminate the lack of visibility directly underneath the Hummer's tall hood line.

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Loads Of Tech

Even more cameras and sensors are put into play with GM's Super Cruise semi-self-driving suite, which will be included in Hummer models for three years before that pesky trial runs out. Super Cruise allows for hands-free driving on over 200,000 miles of roads while also offering a smart, newly introduced automatic lane-change feature that requires zero input from the driver.

As far as the interior goes, a 13.4-inch infotainment display provides a control center for the Hummer's laundry list of functions. It'll be more than a standard touchscreen, too—it'll utilize Epic Games' Unreal graphics engine to show stunning on-screen animations. What you can't see there will pop up on the 12.3-inch driver information screen, which shows all sorts of performance parameters and vehicle awareness features. When you drive a hulking truck that makes next to no noise, you've got to know what's going on around you.

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About That Price Tag...

Cheaper Hummer EVs are on the way, but not for a while. As we mentioned, the truck won't reach production at GM's "Factory ZERO" Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center until the end of 2021. By fall 2022, a $99,995 variant is slated to drop, still with the tri-motor drivetrain and torque vectoring capabilities. 

A lower trim will then drop in the spring of 2023 with two electric motors as standard, though it retains the active air suspension and CrabWalk features for $89,995. Finally, the Hummer will be stripped down to a two-motor, relatively bare-bones spec in spring 2024 for $79,995.

This is a lot to take in, though you'll have at least a year until you can actually buy one. GMC is taking deposits now for the futuristic 4x4 and if premium off-road products like the Ford Bronco are anything to go off of, you'll want to nab your spot in line fairly quickly.

But for GM, it may be the right product at the right time. Trucks and SUVs are clearly the next big thing in the EV world. Ford is deploying a fully electric F-150, and startups like Rivian have some potentially game-changing metal on the way too. GM is looking to its storied SUV past to stay relevant in that emerging world. Will Hummer's electric rebirth have what it takes? We'll find out soon enough. 

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