General Motors has received more than 65,000 reservations for its GMC Hummer EV range, and the pickup is effectively sold out until 2024.
Global GMC vice president Duncan Aldred told CNBC 95 per cent of Hummer EV reservations have been converted into orders, which he says is higher than expected.
But Mr Aldred warned that, while the pickup has gone on sale, new orders for the vehicle are unlikely to be fulfilled until 2024 due to the number of reservations.
GMSV has yet to confirm the Hummer EV for a local launch, though the supply/demand ratio for the new truck doesn’t work in the Australian division’s favour.
“Production’s actually slightly ahead of plan and we’re putting things in place now to actually expedite that as well, so we can deliver these reservations quicker than we originally thought,” Mr Aldred told CNBC.
“We’re seeing momentum building.”
The SUV variant is expected to go on sale in North America in 2023, though reservations are already open. GM is reportedly seeing a more even split between the two body styles after reservations initially skewed heavily towards the pickup.
First quarter sales figures for the Hummer EV are expected to be reported late this week. Thus far, the only variant that’s been available has been the fully-loaded tri-motor Edition 1 pickup.
For context, if the Hummer EV’s circa-65,000 reservation figure was translated directly to annual sales, GMC would sell more of this premium-priced truck than it did either of its entry-level, mid-sized Terrain or larger Acadia crossovers last year.
It starts at US$110,295 (A$147,000), though more affordable dual-motor versions ranging in price from around US$80,000 to $100,000 (A$106,332 to $132,916) are set to follow.
Just one delivery was recorded for December 2021, as production at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck factory was still ramping up.
Mr Aldred told CNBC that GM is on track to produce more Hummer EVs than originally planned, both this year and next year.
It’s the first GM vehicle to use the latest generation of electric vehicle architecture and battery cells, known as Ultium.
Ultium also underpins the Cadillac Lyriq, which entered production days ago.
It’ll be used by a fleet of vehicles across the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands, ranging from the mid-sized Chevrolet Equinox EV all the way up to the flagship Cadillac Celestiq luxury sedan.
Besides the Lyriq, GM has also revealed the Chevrolet Silverado EV, a more direct rival for the Ford F-150 Lightning.
The Hummer EV weighs a porky 4110kg in Edition 1 guise, and packs a tri-motor electric powertrain that GMC claims can produce up to 745kW of power and 15,591Nm of torque at the wheels – though this is a wheel torque figure and not motor torque, and therefore can’t be compared directly with the figures quoted by rivals.
It has a claimed range of 329 miles (529km), can tow 7500 pounds (3401kg), has a payload capacity of 1300 pounds (589kg), and does the 0-60mph (0-96km/h) sprint in approximately three seconds.
While the Hummer EV is being pitched as more of a lifestyle pickup or off-road vehicle, the F-150 Lightning has been targeted at existing pickup truck owners including fleets.
Between May and November 2021, Ford amassed more than 160,000 reservations for its electric truck and subsequently closed reservations in December due to demand.
Both the Lightning and the Hummer have been beaten to market by the smaller R1T from EV startup Rivian, of which deliveries began last year.
