Once the poster child of America’s gas-guzzling SUV obsession, GMC has announced its Hummer EV SUV and ute are going into production this week with more than 90,000 pre-orders for the all-electric beast already confirmed. Nearly three years since it was first announced, the automaker’s global vice president Duncan Aldred confirmed production started on Monday with an almost even split between the two versions that start from US$105,595 (AU$147,73) for Edition 1.
In total, there are four different models of the Hummer SUV, including the dual-motor powered EV2 and EV2X (with around 625bph) and a further two EV3X and the Edition 1 models that feature three motors that claim 830bhp. Despite abandoning the iconic combustion engine, the Hummer EV SUV has proven extremely popular with GMC having to close pre-orders for the electric off-roader late last year due to the scale of the demand.
While the fumes of its petrol-powered aggression are gone, Hummer has done its best to resuscitate the patriotic appeal of the former military-use vehicle with a special driving mode called “Watts to Freedom,” which the automaker claims enable a 0-100km/h time of 3.5 seconds. Available in just one colour – Moonshot Green Matte – the range of the Edition 1 model is estimated at around 480kms, setting it up as a genuinely competitive SUV on the spec sheet.
