GM sells out first year of Hummer EV production run without a real, working car – first mule being built now

Sell first, develop later? It works! The 2022 GMC Hummer EV made its delayed debut earlier this week, but it was in digital form. We were shown impressive videos of the electric “supertruck” and the pics look good, but most of it was slick CGI.

General Motors has admitted that while they have a display car and the battery platform, there’s no real and working example of the Hummer EV in existence yet. “Interestingly enough, we don’t have a vehicle yet. We’re building our first test vehicle as we speak; the vehicle you see in the video is our display vehicle,” chief engineer Al Oppenheiser said.

But who needs to develop a working car first, when you can sell like GM. Reservations for the Hummer EV Edition 1 were filled in just one hour. By the way, the Edition 1 is only due to start production in the fall of 2021, one full year away. The next version in line, both in hierarchy and production schedule, is the Hummer EV3X that will be built from the fall of 2022 at the earliest.

So, that’s one year worth of the Edition 1 that they sold in one hour. Americans who fancy a more affordable electric Hummer will have to wait till 2024, which is when the cheapest version (relatively, because it’s still from $79,995 or RM331,677) is scheduled to go into production. The EV3X is priced from $99,995 (RM414,479) while the flagship Edition 1 will set people back $112,595 (RM466,706).

GMC division boss Duncan Aldred told Reuters that about half the brand’s US dealers have agreed to sell the Hummer EV range, and the company’s intent is to offer no-haggle prices – what is advertised online is firm. Online reservation and firm pricing has been Tesla’s approach. Of course, the electric car specialist has its Cybertruck in the works as well.

The reborn Hummer is an electric beast. Its headline output of 1,000 hp and an estimated 15,591 Nm of torque come from a three-motor powertrain with a double-stacked Ultium battery pack, which has been estimated by GM to offer 560 km of driving range in Edition 1 guise. It can support 800-volt DC fast charging at up to 350 kW, which enables nearly 160 km of range from just 10 minutes of charging, it’s claimed.

The EV3X will come with a three-motor setup producing 800 hp and 12,880 Nm of torque, offering 480 km of range. Further down is the EV2X with a two-motor, 480 hp/10,033 Nm powertrain offering 480 km per charge. The base EV2 that will eventually roll out in 2024 will share the same two-motor 480 hp set-up, but with 400 km of range. Morn on the Hummer EV pick-up truck here.

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