General Motors has begun production of the Hummer EV SUV at its Factory Zero in Michigan, according to Nicole Schmitz, a company spokesperson. The Detroit Press reported Monday that customers could receive their orders by the end of the first quarter. That’s consistent with GM’s FAQ stating the SUV will be available “early 2023.”
I won’t blame anyone who thinks, “wait, haven’t they been making these for a while,” because GM started shipping the truck version of the Hummer EV in December 2021, which has a five-foot-long bed. In October 2022, the company announced that it had made 782 of the vehicles by 2022 and said it had about 90,000 reservations for both the truck and SUV versions. Last summer, The Wall Street Journal reported that GM was only making about 12 Hummer EVs a day.
The Hummers are huge vehicles; the truck’s release revealed that the battery alone weighed 2,923 pounds, or nearly as much as an entire Honda Civic. That fact was actually recent highlighted by Jennifer Homendychairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, during a speech about how vehicles are getting bigger and heavier.
“I am concerned about the increased risk of serious injury and death to all road users from heavier curb weights and increasing size, power and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” she said before specifically mentioning the Hummer’s 10,000. -plus pounds gross vehicle weight. (She also mentioned how electrified vehicles from Ford, Volvo and Toyota were significantly heavier than their gas counterparts.)
That makes it a bit ironic, that GM released a press release about how it donates the proceeds from the sale of the first production Hummer SUV at auction to a charity called “Tread Lightly!” which aims to “balance the needs of the people who enjoy outdoor recreation with the need to maintain healthy ecosystems and thriving wildlife populations across the country.” While I’m absolutely thrilled to hear the nonprofit is getting $500,000, I don’t think anyone will be able to step into a Hummer EV SUV lightly.
