Imagine you’re eight years old and it’s your birthday. You open a big box. Inside is a huge, off-road, remote-controlled truck. You’re ecstatic and can’t wait to head out and eat up some Duracells as you ply your new toy around the yard. Now, as a grownup, you realize why the Hummer EV exists.
At a glance
- Tested both the SUV and truck formats on and off the road for a week each
- GMC went all in on the unsubtle nature of the Hummer EV
- Huge mass means using physics to destroy obstacles
I drove the Hummer EV in both its SUV and its Pickup formats on and off the road for a week each. They did daily errands and child shuttling as well as excursions into the Wyoming wilderness. Here’s the shorter version of my overall assessment: The Hummer EV is like a mobile playhouse for adults who love extremes.
Nothing about the GMC Hummer is subtle. The Hummer EV is, first and foremost, enormous. In pickup or SUV form, it occupies space with the confidence of something designed to almost defy Newtonian law. GMC leans into that presence rather than apologizing for it, and oddly enough, that commitment is what makes the Hummer EV so frikking awesome.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
The numbers are absurd, and GMC knows it. Depending on configuration, output reaches up to 1,000 horsepower (735.5 kW) with torque figures that sound more like industrial equipment than a consumer vehicle. The result is a truck that can launch itself to highway speed far faster than something weighing north of 9,000 lb (4,082 kg) has any right to. Yes, if you haven’t heard, the Hummer EV isn’t just huge in size. Its mass is almost road-cracking.
Straight-line acceleration is shocking the first time and amusing every time after. This is less about practicality and more about proving a point: electric motors make big power easy, and the Hummer EV flexes that fact shamelessly. If you can imagine throwing a brick at the same speed a pro baseball pitcher launches a fastball, that’s basically what acceleration in the Hummer feels like.
Despite its bulk, the Hummer EV isn’t just a pavement-bruiser. Four-wheel steering, including the much-publicized CrabWalk mode, allows it to maneuver in tight spaces with a kind of awkward grace. On trails, adaptive air suspension and massive ground clearance help it crawl over obstacles. This isn’t a rock-climber or serious trail machine, though. Nothing about the Hummer EV is nimble. It’s more a brute force attack on terrain versus being adaptable to get around it. The Hummer EV makes technical off-roading feel more like a Klingon physics experiment.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
Inside, the Hummer EV balances rugged design with high-end tech. Materials are durable rather than plush, but they feel intentional. Large displays dominate the dashboard, delivering clear graphics and responsive controls that fit the vehicle’s futuristic-ish mission. But there’s a sense of theater to everything, from the removable roof panels to the animations that play when engaging drive modes. It’s all a bit much, really, and that’s probably the point. Kind of like the overbuilt guns of a GI Joe set, the Hummer EV feels larger than life.
Let’s be clear: the Hummer EV is not an efficiency champion. Range is respectable (about 320 miles / 515 km real-world) given the vehicle’s mass, but this is an electric vehicle that consumes electrons with the same enthusiasm that a W12 engine sucks gasoline. This is not an EV meant to convince skeptics that electric vehicles are sensible. It’s meant to convince those skeptics that electric vehicles can be fun, ridiculous, and unapologetically excessive toys.
Aaron Turpen / New Atlas
Rather than shrinking the Hummer legacy to fit an electric future, GMC amplified it. The result isn’t for everyone, obviously. But I think more people can understand it than the naysayers might think. The Hummer EV exists because it can, and in doing so, it proves that electrification doesn’t have to mean ending up in a world full of Prius lookalikes. And not every vehicle has to have a practical, logical excuse for itself. Sometimes, we just want toys.
Product page: GMC Hummer EV
