Hummer's never been small. The new all-electric 2022 GMC Hummer EV truck fits the family mold, bringing great girth and grit to a new generation of buyers. It's the first plus sized electric vehicle (EV) from General Motors, serving as a precursor to the company's Chevrolet Silverado EV.
Designers carried over many of the hallmarks of the previous generations of Hummer into the new one, merging them with new materials and styling. The "Hummer" on the front of the battery electric vehicle sits front and center, but now it's on the truck's frunk rather than the grille. It's backlit by LEDs that give the model a light bar up front rather than just headlights.
The model has a Chevy Avalanche-like shape, on steroids. Its short bed is just 5 feet long, a little larger than the Rivian R1T's. The box's small size is complemented by the frunk (front trunk), which has 9 cubic feet of cargo space - enough to hold the roof panels of the model, but 35 percent smaller than the Ford F-150 Lightning's 14.1 cubic feet.
Power for the 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 truck comes from General Motors' Ultium battery pack, which affords it an EPA-estimated 329 miles of all-electric range. That large pack puts the pickup at around 9,000 pounds before people and cargo are factored in.
There's no getting around how big the Hummer EV is. Nearly the width of a lane of traffic and as long as a traditional pickup truck, the model moves about the road with as much aplomb as a teenager who suddenly finds himself bigger than when he went to bed a week ago. Despite that, the four-wheel electric steering allows the model to be relatively agile and easy to take around corners.
In town, at relatively low speed, the truck is manageable. On the highway, it reveals its full size, with a blind spot a metaphorical mile wide and lane wander that gets worse as speed increases.
Thankfully, the truck is equipped with Super Cruise, the hands-off combination adaptive cruise control, lane centering, blind spot monitoring and lane keeping assist technology that can do much of this massive task for a driver. But, its use is limited to certain highways and the rest of the time, being the Hummer EV's minder is more taxing than is ideal.
Trail driving is where the Hummer EV shows off why it's a boss. Its easy low-speed maneuverability that shows off on city streets is right at home on the dirt of the back roads in Arizona.
Thanks to its well-engineered steering, the truck is able to navigate obstacles far beyond traditional truck capabilities. This is the same feature that enables GMC's Crab Walk functionality, where the truck moves forward at an angle that allows it to skirt around an obstacle rather than turn in traditional fashion. The battery-powered pickup can be driven with Crab Walk engaged the model takes a driver's full attention, especially when moving above 5 miles per hour. It then becomes a bit unwieldy.
When Crab Walk just isn't enough, the truck's Extract Mode can offer additional assistance. Using the truck's adaptive air suspension, it can lift the truck 6 inches, helping the model overcome big rocks and high water in its path.
Those obstacles can be seen easily thanks to the truck's 18 camera views, a number that includes under-body angles that are courtesy of waterproof cameras. The view is clear all around and the wide variety of angles make it easy to see the trail ahead in a truck with so much body though, like with any camera system, there is some lag between reality and the view on the screen.
GMC also uses its 1000 horsepower and 1,200 pound-feet (lb-ft) of torque for the Watts to Freedom (abbreviated WTF) launch control mode. The instant torque afforded to the model via its electric motors propels the vehicle off the line in a jiffy that feels like an amusement park ride.
The interior of the Hummer EV isn't particularly plush, though it is well-designed in most regards. It follows the typical General Motors formula that puts numerous materials and textures within close proximity, none of which as nice or supple as what is found in the Ram 1500 or Rivian R1T.
The plastic-windowed roof panels in the tester showed the glue they're held in by in the seams around their edges.
A thick steering wheel and robust features in the cabin make the interior of the model match its exterior.
The Hummer EV's Sky Panels allow daylight to flood the cabin at all times. There's no shade to pull when the day gets hot, which means that the space right above the heads of passengers roasts in the spring and summer. This causes the air conditioning to have to work extra hard to keep up, draining battery life. GMC says that it will offer a traditional roof style panel for the next model year.
One of the best things about the Hummer EV Edition 1 truck that the company teamed with gaming company Epic Games to create unique graphics that initiate upon drive mode selection. The graphics are clear and creative. However, their run sequence takes up more time than is ideal when on the go.
The truck comes with a bevy of safety and driver assistance technology, chief among them the suite of driving tech called Super Cruise, which works to keep the vehicle in its lane without the driver having to keeps theirs hands on the wheel. The tech package moderates speed, closeness to other vehicles, and can complete hands-free lane changes at the will of the driver. Attention still needs to be paid to the road ahead as the system can fail for any number of reasons, but the on/off functionality of it is smoother than any system on sale today.
Super Cruisel also intuitive to use, switching on like cruise control, and with a colored bar on the steering wheel that shows blue when the system is ready to engage, green when engaged, and red when it fails. Audible and other visual alerts signal Super Cruise status as well.
General Motors engineers refer to the Hummer EV truck as a moonshot project. It's an engineering feat that also wins points for heritage references and overall cool factor. Compromised drivability is the price you have to pay to pilot something so massive, but a lot of GM's tech is employed to make the experience better. Overall, it's a win.
The Hummer EV Edition 1 price tag is high - over $110,000. There's nothing that really compares on the market today, making the Hummer EV an instant collectible and a quirky add to an enthusiast garage.
Is the price worth it? To the enthusiast buyer, absolutely. By the time the less expensive versions of the truck come to market in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the Hummer EV will have more competition.
