General Motors has started production of the GMC Hummer EV SUV at its Factory ZERO plant in Detroit-Hamtramck, Michigan.
This follows around 14 months after GM began production of the slightly longer pickup version of the GMC Hummer EV at the same facility.
Motor 1 reports words from global Buick and GMC vice-president Duncan Aldred that production of the GMC Hummer EV SUV will start slowly before ramping up in the second half of this year.
Mr Aldred reportedly didn’t go into specific on-sale dates and planned production numbers, but said the company currently has 90,000 Hummer EV reservations to fill. Approximately 50 to 60 per cent of these are for the pickup version.
Just like the Hummer EV pickup, the first examples of the Hummer EV SUV will only be available in now sold-out Edition 1 guise.
It’s powered by a tri-electric motor drivetrain with 619kW of power and 15,592Nm of torque, though this is a wheel torque figure and not motor/engine torque.
The Hummer EV SUV has different quoted power outputs to the pickup, with the SUV’s Edition 1 featuring significantly less than the 746kW said to be available in the Edition 1 pickup.
This tri-motor drivetrain in the Hummer EV SUV will be shared with the later EV3X model, and is claimed to offer a 0-60mph (0-97km/h) sprint time of around 3.5 seconds.
This will be followed by a few months later by the mid-spec EV2X variant with a dual-motor setup producing 466kW.
The Edition 1, EV3X and EV2X are equipped with a 20-module battery pack that offers a claimed range of around 480km according to the US EPA’s testing regime.
The last model down the production line, starting from the second quarter of 2024, will be the entry-level EV2 model, which features the EV2X’s 466kW dual-electric motor setup.
This car though will have a smaller 16-module battery pack good for around 400km of driving according to EPA testing.
To celebrate the start of the GMC Hummer EV SUV production, the company sent the first example with the VIN 001 to auction where it sold for $US500,000 ($A708,875).
The money from the sale of this first Hummer EV SUV will go to Tread Lightly!, which is a non-profit organisation that promotes outdoor recreation through stewardship and educational programs.
On the local front, it’s unclear if the GMC Hummer EV SUV will be coming to Australia any time soon, if at all.
When GMC revealed the Hummer EV back in October 2020, GM said it was not making any announcements in relation to global markets outside of North America, at that stage.
The general response to date from GMSV has been it’s currently focusing on offering the petrol-powered Silverado pickup and the Corvette to showrooms around Australia and New Zealand.