In case you don’t remember the original Hummer, it was never made to be a practical vehicle. The first consumer version, the H1, was released in 1992 by AM General, which, if you didn’t catch it, was the same company that produced the military’s Humvee–thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger practically begging for a civilian version. It wasn’t built to be comfortable or efficient; it was built to be capable, rugged, and downright obnoxious. In the early 2000s, when it was bought by General Motors, the H2 and H3 became status symbols. No one cared that it got 8 mpg, that it weighed literally tons, or that it was difficult to see out of, or that it wasn’t even that great off-road. They liked the way it looked like it had automatic weapons hidden under panels, or like a Transformer. For the Hummer, looks meant a hell of a lot more than function.
Mil-Spec
Then the gas crisis killed it off. For a while, anyway. GMC bought the name and resurrected it as an EV, and unlike the early 2000s, it was met with a lot of skepticism because of the general population’s shift in mentality towards obnoxious cars. I mean, look at how much hate the Tesla Cybertruck gets. Something that big, heavy, and wide is just ridiculous. Who needs a car like that? There’s no way a “supertruck” that weighs over 9,000 pounds and has a six-figure price tag can be practical. There’s no way something like that isn’t just a collection of bad ideas made into a car, or a car-shaped gimmick. The reality of it is, the GMC Hummer EV is, inherently, a bad idea, like the Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk. But I fell in love with it, and so did my husband and toddlers. It speaks to Newton’s law: for every cringey or bad idea, there’s an equal feature that neutralizes it. If the GMC Hummer EV pickup were a person, it would be the meathead bodybuilder who catches you off-guard because they’re actually insanely intelligent.
First off, the horsepower is a mood booster
The tester I drove was the 3X model with the 24 module battery pack, so it’s the tri-motor configuration with electronic 4WD and 1,160 horsepower. Since it weighs as much as it does, most of that power is used just to move it—but it makes it unbelievably smooth in urban environments and on the highway, and if you, your spouse, or the kids are in a sour mood, there’s no better way to get a smile on some grumpy faces than to goose it a little bit. My favorite thing to do would be to ask my oldest daughter, “Did you hear that?” and when she was trying to listen, I’d give it the beans. Both of my daughters would squeal, and my husband’s stoic face would transform to one I’d expect to see on a kid who was just told they’d get ice cream on the way home. It worked every time.
Kristen Brown
My daughters would wiggle in their seats and say, “Again! Again! Go faster again, pwease!” My daily driver, a 2011 Subaru Forester, just doesn’t hit the same, I suppose. Because of the GMC Hummer EV’s mass and feeling it for myself, there’s no way you’d get the same pull with a gas-only engine. It made me so glad it was an EV, because it had the torque you needed when you needed it, and it made it such a fun and surprisingly easy truck to drive. I didn’t test the Watts to Freedom (WTF) with my kids in it, but I can promise you—it’s a truly theatrical experience worth trying out if you get the chance. Feeling something heavy hit sixty in about three seconds is truly a feat of engineering, and you’ll want to do it again, and again, and again.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s huge—but it doesn’t drive like it at all
When I first laid eyes on the Hummer EV pickup being parked in my driveway, I crawled in to take interior pictures and told my husband I was skeptical. I’d driven the SUV version before (it was the first EV I’d ever driven), but it was on wide-open roads in Washington, and my kids weren’t in it. Now, I’m in a town with narrow streets and lots of cars parked on the street, making them even narrower. I said to my husband, “I don’t know, man, this one scares me.” But once I pulled out of the driveway and got rolling, I realized it was one of the easiest cars to drive, thanks to the Hummer’s tight four-wheel steering. That feature gives the Hummer EV a turning radius of 37.1 feet, which is tighter than that of a Toyota Sienna or Chevy Suburban. It was also very easy for me to see the corners of the hood because of the high seating position, so I always knew where the corners were. The windshield is low, but the mirrors are large, and there are cameras everywhere. It had cameras in the side mirrors that turned on when I activated the signal, so there weren’t any blind spots, either.
Kristen Brown
The Hummer EV, if you want it to, can come with up to 18 cameras (with their own washers). You could even have one underneath the car for when you’re off-roading. So, there’s literally no such thing as a blind spot. When you’re pulling into or out of a parking spot, there’s a 360-degree view camera that helps you keep in the lines. It has a steering and lane centering assist, so you can’t use its size as an excuse to not stay in your own lane, and it has a rear-facing camera for going in reverse. GMc thought of every “what if” angle and scenario and solved it with a camera. So, again, there’s literally no excuse to drive it terribly. If you ever see someone driving one badly, it’s because they want to. Not because they can’t help it. Trust me.
What truly shocked me, though, was how nimble and fun it was to drive on windy or twisty roads, too. I took my daughters to walk in the redwoods after it rained the night before, and it involved driving on a windy road for about 13 miles. The four-wheel steering feature, adaptive air suspension, and responsive throttle made the behemoth feel tighter around those corners than my WRX. I mean that. I hopped out of the Hummer and looked back at it, and was stunned by how much I enjoyed driving it. It didn’t feel like it weighed that much at all. Because it was fun to drive, I didn’t mind listening to the theme song of My Little Pony about 40 times. I was distracted by how much fun the Hummer EV was to drive.
The adaptive air suspension makes it more maneuverable
The air suspension isn’t just good for driving; it can also help make it easier to live with. Let’s say you’re driving into a parking garage with a seven-foot height limit. You can lower it with the press of a button to make entry possible. Or you’re trying to get out of your garage, or you need to lower it to make it easier for the kiddos to get in and out of. My husband used it to get a heavy bicycle into the bed, and then back out of it. On the other hand, the height can be increased by nearly six inches to bring it to a maximum ground clearance height of 15.6 inches, so if you need to clear anything—and I do mean anything—you can. All with the press of a button and a few seconds of your time.
Kristen Brown
Therefore, the “too big” angle can’t really stick, because it solves its own problem. It has tight steering, the ability to lower itself to make entry and exit easier, to make it fit in places it otherwise wouldn’t. Now, there is still the issue with the width. With the mirrors out, it’s 7.8 feet wide, which is almost as wide as a commercial semi-truck. So, modern garages will struggle to fit another car beside it. But I can confidently say that it fits in the driveway just fine next to my Subaru.
The truck’s bed is great, but I’d recommend the SUV version for families
The Hummer EV’s bed is about five feet long, so it can fit most things, like bikes, the occasional haul from storage, or furniture, just fine. It has a high ground clearance of 10.1 inches at its lowest, which would normally make it a bit difficult to get things into and out of the bed. But, like the GM siblings it shares a platform with (the GMC Sierra EV or the Chevy Silverado EV), it has a modular tailgate to help. It can fold like normal truck’s bed does, or a small portion can open up to make it easier to haul things like lumber, or it can be folded to be a step to get in and out of the bed. It can also be used as a seat, too, with a maximum weight capacity of 375 pounds.
Kristen Brown
Which makes it great as a work truck, but I preferred the covered space of the SUV variant—though it means you lose the bed and a good chunk of horsepower, as the 3X version of the SUV is limited to 850 horsepower. The truck bed does come with a cover, so you could use it to haul a stroller and other family-centric items without them getting wet or flying out of it, but it’s held on by Velcro. You technically have more carrying capabilities with the truck’s bed and cover, but the SUV has more vertical space that doesn’t require tie-downs, and I prefer to put my groceries in the back of an SUV and not a truck. Plus, attaching the top tether in the SUV version was a lot easier and inspired a lot more confidence. The pickup version requires you to use a fabric loop to reroute it to a piece of metal behind the center seat’s headrest. It worked, and it was easier to figure out that other trucks I’ve tested, but it just felt like an afterthought. The SUV had secure top tether points on the back of the seat.
There was a lack of cargo space, but there were tons of interior space
Trucks are never known for the cargo space on the inside, but I did appreciate the amount of vertical space and legroom in the pickup version. The rear seats were incredibly spacious. So much so that even with the car seats installed, I could still get in (thanks to side steps installed from the factory) and practically stand. That meant if I needed to, I could get in and make adjustment sto my daughter’s seats without much trouble. Getting into and out of the driver’s seat was a breeze, and my husband definitely appreciated the fact that his head wasn’t barely missing the ceiling at 6’1”. The height means larger windows, which helped make it easier to see out of when driving or parking, too. From the outside, it looks like the Hummer EV’s height is just for show, but it’s not—it’s incredibly appreciated from the inside.
Kristen Brown
Before putting my daughter’s car seats into it, the rear seats were incredibly comfortable. I’m about 5’8”, and I had plenty of room for my knees and legs. Rear passengers have their own climate control settings, A/C vents, and cupholders, too, so it would be fairly accommodating for longer trips. To my daughters’ delight, the rear windows roll all the way down, so they never felt car sick or had to deal with not being able to see. The Hummer EV pickup, like the SUV, also comes with an Infinity Roof with removable Sky Panels, which are essentially removable t-tops that can be stored in the frunk in their own dedicated protective bags if you want to experience that open-air feeling, too. I didn’t get a chance to test it off-road, but if I ever get the SUV version to test, that will be one of the first things I do. Despite the removable top, the ride was still quiet.
The 3X comes with a higher, more realistic range
The Hummer EV 3X comes with a large battery pack, which provides a maximum range of 363 miles on a full charge when driven conservatively. There aren’t many other EVs on the market with all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive that offer a realistic range like this. Ideally, you’d be charging this large barge at your at-home charger, but if you can’t, it can be charged quickly. GM fitted it with an 800-volt architecture, which allows for DC fast charging. Around 100 miles can be added in 10-14 minutes at 350kW chargers, and GMC says it can handle over 300kW peak and can sustain high rates for longer periods of time, making it easy to publicly charge. If you’re charging it on a Level 2 charger, it can take between 18 and 24 hours to fully charge. Not too shabby, if you ask me.
Kristen Brown
If you’re a parent, this is a very livable range. I’m lucky if I see a range higher than 280 miles on my Subaru. And let’s be honest with ourselves here: if it were a gas-only car with 1,160 horsepower with a curb weight of over 9,000 lbs, there’s no way in Hell it would have a range of 376 miles. So far, that means it surpasses its predecessors on every level: the pickup can tow over 12,000 pounds, it can go zero to sixty in about three seconds, it has substantially more horsepower, and it’s remarkably efficient. I’m telling you—making the Hummer an EV was the best decision GMC’s made in a long time.
Technology is easy to use and interpret, but it may take a little getting used to
By now, we all know that GM doesn’t support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in their cars because they want you to use their “superior” software. The software itself isn’t all that bad because it uses built-in apps from Google, so as an Android user, the lack of Android Auto isn’t that big of a culture shock to me. If you’re used to Apple, it may take you a tad longer for you to figure it out, because it’s very Android-esque. It wasn’t ever laggy; it was very easy to use and figure out, but again, I’m very familiar with the Android OS.
Kristen Brown
The only gripe I had about the interior tech, and I mean the only one, was the fact that the driver controls, like the A/C switch, heater switch, seat heaters, or ventilators, were switches that didn’t have a little light built in. Each function has a very easy-to-interpret backlit symbol on the touchscreen that’s permanently displayed, but to use them, you have to tap a switch. Which is great in the daytime, but a little annoying at night, because there’s no light on the switch. And you’d think, “Oh, okay, well I’ll just tap the symbol since it’s on the screen.” Nope, it won’t work. Because the switches are a little close together, I accidentally toggled the wrong switch multiple times. This, though, could easily be dismissed as something you’d get used to over time.
Super Cruise made toddler-wrangling in traffic so much easier
If you’re a parent, I’m sure you can relate: your kids are quiet, self-entertaining, and well-behaved until you hit traffic. For some reason, whenever I hit traffic, a flip switch in their brains that makes them antsy, grumpy, and suddenly they drop everything they were previously holding tight. I have to keep turning around and picking up their water bottles or their toys, and if they didn’t already have one, then suddenly they need a snack. My oldest tends to try to undo her harness, so I have to turn around and adjust that, too. Super Cruise absolutely helped take a bit of weight off my shoulders. Because I could enable it, and then do what I needed to do to keep my kids comfortable, hydrated, and safe.
Kristen Brown
I especially appreciated that it would do the stopping and going for me, so I didn’t have to deal with screaming because I had to make sure I was stopped behind the car in front of me. The Hummer did it for me, without breaking a sweat. It was smooth, effortless, and incredibly precise. If I didn’t have my kids with me, it would be such a treat to be able to let the Hummer do all the regen braking while in traffic so I could fiddle with the settings, pick my favorite song from my playlist, or be actively listening on a phone call. It’s such a valuable system.
Final thoughts
The Hummer EV is, on the surface, a very stupid car. But the company did an amazing job meeting every “stupid” feature halfway, and in turn, it made it a surprisingly effective, fun, capable, and versatile vehicle—especially for the range. At $118,935, it’s not a cheap ride. But for what you get, I feel like it’s fairly priced, not unlike the Rivian R1S Quad Motor. You get everything you’re paying for and more with that price tag. After a week, the Hummer EV is absolutely on my list of best cars I’ve driven, and it’s the car that surprised me the most. In this industry, it’s very difficult to be surprised by anything. But the Hummer EV took me for a ride and defied all the assumptions I had for it. No wonder my husband wants one.
About the author
Kristen Brown
Contributing Writer, Autoblog