Yahoo Autos Tested: 2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 Pickup Breaks Barriers
The thing to keep in mind about the 2022 GMC Hummer EV is that this is all intentional. Yes, GM's first electric pickup is a 1000-hp Hummer that looks one step removed from Monster Jam, and that is a very deliberate strategy to change the conversation around EVs. If you bought a first-generation Nissan Leaf and think the Hummer EV is dumb, well, of course it is! It's not for you. It's for people who drive lifted one-ton Duramax duallies and think electric cars have 50 horsepower and are made of kelp. If the Hummer EV attained sentience, the first thing it would do is smash through your fence to ask if you've got a spare Monster Energy decal.
When you give the Hummer EV full throttle, the ass end squats and the steering goes light as damn-near five tons of truck does its best Cigarette boat impression, prompting involuntary profanity. It seats five, which it would describe as "two-and-a-half Insane Clown Posses." Along with all else, we're quite sure this represents the first pairing of 35-inch tires with blue-tinted T-tops. We suspect GM started with a mood board that featured Top Fuel dragsters, double-necked electric guitars, and the cast of Duck Dynasty.
The Hummer EV is an exotic, the same way a McLaren or a Ferrari is, even if our Edition 1 test truck wore a price tag that's more exotic-adjacent: $118,039. (GM recently raised prices by $6650 on other trims.) Its performance numbers are as silly as the dual spare tires that consumed most of the bed space and made glances in the rearview mirror a fraught exercise—is that the nose gear of a midsize commuter jet that's landing on my truck? Each one of those wheel-and-tire assemblies weighs 100 pounds, so if you get a flat, be sure to call Hafthor Björnsson for roadside assistance.
Although the Hummer, at 9640 pounds, is surely the heaviest pickup we've ever tested, it's also one of the quickest, hitting 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and clearing the quarter-mile in 11.9 seconds at 106 mph. That 60-mph time is accomplished using Watts to Freedom (WTF) launch mode, which requires two taps of the stability control button and a confirmation on the steering wheel, after which the truck lowers its suspension and readies its cooling system. Thus the 5-to-60-mph time of 4.9 seconds is more representative of real-world power delivery, where the Hummer doesn't seem to unleash its full 1000 horsepower and 1200 pound-feet of torque until you're well on your way—there's a swell to the acceleration, like a huge internal-combustion engine climbing into the powerband. Drag-strip savants will note that an 11.9-second elapsed time would imply a higher trap speed, and that's true—at 1008 feet, the Hummer hits its speed limiter. The rest of the run it's effectively on cruise control.
Which is probably for the best, because reining in five tons of GMC might require an assist from a runaway-truck ramp. The mondo EV's 70-mph stopping distance, 211 feet, is on the long end even for a heavy-duty truck, and stopping from 100 mph requires 504 feet. Testers noted heavy brake fade, so think twice before entering your Hummer EV in our next Lighting Lap event. At least we can say that a significant proportion of the Hummer's weight is accounted for by its huge, 205.0-kWh battery, which afforded it 290 miles of range on our 75-mph highway test.
As for handling, let's say it requires some acclimation. The Hummer EV is most wieldy at low speeds, where its countersteering rear end affords it unlikely agility, if not grace. Its 37.1-foot turning circle is a boon in parking lots, once you get used to the rear end of the truck swinging around to help the cause. At speed, though, its four-wheel-steer mode imparts a rhino-on-Rollerblades sensation, like you're helming one of those fire trucks that has a separate driver for the rear end, and that driver is Bubbles the Chimpanzee after downing a case of Mountain Dew. Fortunately, it's easy to select two-wheel steer, and that seems to calm things down. But this isn't like a Porsche with four-wheel steering, where the assistance is transparent. No, you're definitely aware of the system at work, and so are onlookers, who might notice the Hummer EV casually ripping up asphalt as it makes a tight U-turn.
GMC will get around to building more reasonable electric trucks, sure, but for now this is a billboard pointed straight at the Trucks Gone Wild crowd, inviting all of them to get on board with the EV revolution. Or else.
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