GMC boss bullish on Hummer EV demand as it beats Tesla Cybertruck to market
GMC has over 65,000 orders for the supertruck
Inside the 2022 GMC Hummer EV
Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu provides insight into the 2022 GMC Hummer EV and its features.
EXCLUSIVE: The Tesla Cybertruck was first revealed in November 2019, two months before General Motors announced the Hummer name was returning on an all-electric truck sold by GMC.
The Hummer EV is built at GM's Factory Zero plant in Michigan. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Both high-performance pickups were scheduled to enter production in 2021, but only one of them did. And it wasn’t the Tesla.
GMC delivered one Hummer EV to a customer last December to make the deadline and has shipped 99 more in the first quarter of 2022. The slow rollout was planned and Buick/GMC Vice President Duncan Aldred told FOX Business he’s satisfied with the progress.
"I think what’s important to us is proving that when we say we’re going to do something, we do it, and that’s what we did," Aldred said of getting to market ahead of the Cybertruck, which has now been delayed until at least early 2023.
"Words are easy."
The GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 starts at $112,495 (GMC)
GMC already has over 65,000 reservations for the Hummer EV and they're still coming in, with this week seeing the most since the vehicle was originally revealed in a commercial during the 2020 Super Bowl broadcast.
LeBron James, who starred commercial, has one as do several other celebrities Aldred didn’t name. He said having them out there is helping build excitement for the model.
Along with a 1,000 hp powertrain capable of accelerating it to 60 mph in three seconds, the Hummer EVs unique CrabWalk Mode that uses a four-wheel-steering system to allow the vehicle to move diagonally has also been creating buzz and even caught the eye of Elon Musk, who recently announced a similar capability would be added to the Cybertruck.
The Hummer EV's CrabWalk mode allows it to drive diagonally. (GMC)
"We know it’s a brilliant feature," Aldred said.
The first Hummer EVs being built are the limited availability top of the line Edition 1, which starts at $112,495, but lower priced models down to under $80,000 and an SUV version will be added over the coming years as production is increased.
A GMC Hummer EV SUV will be added for the 2024 model year. (GMC)
That’s taking some time as a result of an accelerated development process that saw the Hummer EV come to market in less than two years, but Aldred expects the assembly line to be up to full speed by the end of this year.
He wouldn’t confirm exactly how many GMC will be building then, but the Hummer EV’s Ultium electric platform will also be underpinning the upcoming GMC Sierra EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV pickups, and GM plans to be selling 600,000 electric trucks annually by 2025.
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The Hummer EV won’t be selling in the same volumes as the Sierra, which will be a more mainstream and commercial model, but Aldred doesn’t expect it to be niche. In the best year of its gas-guzzler era, Hummer sold over 70,000 trucks through its standalone dealers, rather than the larger GMC network.
More important to the bottom line is that 80% of orders are being placed for top-of-the-line models and even after production normalizes he doesn’t see demand being met for a long while.
"We believe there’s enough there to last for several years," Aldred said.