2022 Hummer EV Review: Cool Party Tricks, Otherwise Just Okay

This is the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup truck. This is kind of the answer to what would you do if an EV didnt have to be efficiency first, and it was more of an adventure, vehicle and kind of a money, no object. Heres, a blank check, build the ultimate off roader sort of thing. So this is a fully electric vehicle. Gm has brought back the Hummer brand as kind of a sub brand of the GMC truck model lineup, and were going to talk all about what this 2022 Hummer EV is well. Show you all of the little party tricks that theyve been advertising and pushing and then well talk about what this Hummer EV is like to live with in the real world. Now youll notice, I am at an Electrify America charging station the charge. Speed of this truck is part of the big deal. This is on the ultium platform, which is GMs new high speed charging platform, its an 800 volt charging platform battery platform, and it gives a lot of power. It gives very a lot of flexibility in where the batteries can go and how the battery packs can be shaped, and it gives you up to 350 kilowatts of charging speed, which is very exciting. Now I was not able to really experience that while I was road tripping this thing all weekend. However, I came to the Electrify America headquarters because I lived nearby and I am getting 350 kilowatts of charging speed right now, while this is plugged in while I am filming this, so that is exciting.

It is very cool uh. Hopefully, some of these Chargers on the road on the highways can maybe work a little more reliably at that speed. As things ramp up, I was able to get 150 kilowatts pretty consistently, but otherwise lets talk about what this Hummer EV is starting with all that power. All those drivetrains so like I said this is on the ultium platform and this uses three motors, so its got one motor up front and two Motors on the rear and they make a combined 1 000 horsepower, and that is pretty cool. But what is even cooler is the amount of torque, because torque is really what you drive most of the time. Horsepower is just what gets advertised, but GM claims that this Hummer EV makes 11 500 pound feet of torque, which is accurate, but its misleading marketing, because 11 500 pounds of torque is wheel. Torque measured down here uh. If you were to measure wheel, torque of any four wheel, drive pickup truck like a I dont know: GMC Sierra with a Duramax. It would be 15 or 16 000 pound feet of wheel. Torque in four wheel, drive low, so uh torque at the engine torque at the the drivetrain itself is going to be less and its kind of misleading marketing on GMCs part, but they did confirm that it is rated at 1200 pound feet of torque. So, no matter how you measure it, the Hummer EV has a crap ton of power and a crap ton of torque theres commas in those values, and that is uh pretty wild.

Now it has to have all that power and torque, because it is a heavy vehicle. This is the heaviest EV on sale. It is uh heavy it just as trucks go, it weighs 9 000 pounds. It is a big boy. Now were not here to body, shame or anything, but this is a lot of weight and were going to talk about that. In the driving portion, but yeah its its a little over 9000 pounds as measured by some other bigger Outlets who have access to scales as far as what else mechanically is going on here with the Hummer EV, it is sending all that power to all four wheels Of course, with the three motors uh, it has Standard air suspension to go up and down. It has adaptive shocks to change the ride quality and it has standard four wheel steering so you have the ability to make really tight turns, which is really great. Well, talk again about that in the drive portion and its got a feature called crab walk in which the rear wheels will turn in the same direction as the front wheels. They can go up to 10 degrees left or right with you at really slow speeds. Gmc says that that is beneficial for off roading, its also just kind of a cool party trick as far as other party tricks going on. The other big thing that uh that GMC has put in this is what they call watts to Freedom, which is abbreviated.

Wtf, of course, um. I personally find that all kind of cringe, but either way its launch control, so lots of Freedom. You have to go through the the infotainment and turn it on and It prepares the Hummer. It lowers a little bit, it stiffens the shocks and it gets you all ready and then you basically break torque it and let off the brake. This is how that went. This is my first time trying it with some friends in the car. This is my unfiltered reaction Applause, so that is my full unfiltered, first time reaction to WTF mode, its really wild. It feels kind of like a roller coaster that just kind of snaps you forward once you get past that sort of party trick, though you do have to live with this car, whether you are driving it day to day or just taking out on the weekends, is Kind of a toy you got to deal with the size and the mass of it, so lets talk a little bit about how big it is, because everyone online seems to think that this is just this gargantuan vehicle. And, frankly, I did too. I didnt know if it would fit in my parking garage when I got it here. I didnt know how I was going to be driving in the city, all that sort of thing its actually not as bad as you would think its just proportioned kind of funny. Its very tank like wheelbase wise – this is just shy of 136 inches of wheelbase, so it is pretty long between the front and rear wheels.

It is going to be a longer wheelbase than something like a Chevy Tahoe overall length is actually only six inches longer than a Tahoe, and it is shorter than a Chevy Suburban. So if you think those two big full size SUVs, this is between them in overall length as far as Towing and payload. Those are the other numbers, of course, that everyone cares about out. Every Hummer EV pickup is rated to tow 7500 pounds and GMC says these. Have 1 300 pounds of payload according to the door jamb sticker on mine? That is correct kind of hard to go wrong because all of these Hummer EVS being sold right now are first edition models, which is to say theyre, fully loaded. There are no options and kind of is what it is now I mentioned. This has four corner air suspension, so of course it can go up and down based on the drive mode that you pick. So this is in normal mode. This is 10.1 inches of ground clearance, as this sits right now, if you put it in terrain mode, which is the off road mode, it goes up to 11.9 inches of ground clearance, which is a lot thats pretty wild, and if it is in extract mode, which Is something that it will put itself in if youre trying to get unstuck older Range Rovers have this capability? I think the new ones still do as well, where, basically, if it detects that the truck is stuck, it can push the wheels down further to try and get you up and over whatever is keeping you stuck.

It will go up to 15.9 inches of ground clearance. Temporarily, to get you unstuck out of something it just makes those airbag eggs inflate as much as they can and kind of get you up and over and then itll go back down to your regular terrain. Height now Tire wise since were looking at these very muddy tires. This is a Goodyear Wrangler all terrain. This is a 305 millimeter wide tire and uh its a lot of tire, and it is, you know its an all terrain, its meant to be off road capable first, so during the driving portion, of course, well talk about how these tires actually feel to move around With on the road – and I mentioned that ultium platform, this is where your charge port is going to be typical, CCS combo port. At this point, that 350 kilowatt charging speed is lovely. You do have a gigantic battery to power this thing and give it the range that GMC wanted to give it. So it is rated at 329 miles range, theres, no Long Range model there all of the same range going on, but it is a 221 kilowatt hour battery pack, which is part of why this thing weighs so much. The battery pack itself weighs almost 2 800 pounds, which is the weight of my race car with me in it. So thats just the batteries in this thing, and that is what GMC is using to give it that 329 miles of stated range all right now, with all that lets get behind the wheel and talk about how this 2022 Hummer EV pickup Edition one is to drive All right so lets talk about driving the 2022 Hummer EV Edition.

One pickup truck were starting this in the city Im in Washington DC Im in a newer kind of redeveloped part of DC, which means the streets are a little wider than they could be in other older parts of the city. This is a wide vehicle like we have to get some of these proportions out of the way and talk through them. This is a big boy, its very hippie, which is to say its not actually that long. You know its its between a Tahoe and a Suburban in length, so like thats, big for a city environment, but its not massive its smaller than a you know. Three quarter ton pickup truck and its smaller than most half ton pickup trucks, even where its interesting is just the width of it, especially when you try to park at my parking spots in my apartment. Complex theyre not narrow, but you have to maneuver very carefully to get in them. I just keep catching myself its almost like driving a dually where you have to just watch for the rear. Fenders in your mirrors, as youre backing up thats really been the most difficult part. The longer wheelbase certainly doesnt help things, however, having the four wheel steering certainly does the entire truck will just kind of pivot, so its really interesting you can take turns tighter than you think you can, or you think you should so its actually not terrible in the City, its not terrible to parallel park, you just have to watch out for the hips of it all like, I said now getting out onto the highway here.

This is where, of course, this is going to be more at home. Is you know on the highway? In the suburbs, anywhere youve got more space, the chicks said wide open spaces and and were gon na go with that. This is a totally fine Highway car its its kind of interesting. The visibility is a mixed bag in here. In that youve got this kind of short windshield. You know and Ill hit the wipers here, so you can see its got three windshield wipers uh, because the windshield is so short um its its giving like Toyota FJ Cruiser Vibes what that means for a tall driver in particular, I still want the seat high. This can go a lot lower, but the seating position for me is not ideal there, so I have the seat kind of high, which means at stop lights. I end up staring at the windshield header and I cant see the light, so I have to pull up and look through the roof or squat down visibility. Otherwise, you know youve got pretty good views as you look out the windows, its kind of the benefit of this thing being so Square, the the dash the door Sills. All that is fairly low, so you can get around pretty easily. I have not found a good position for the mirrors, yet I have been messing with them. Constantly Ive put 460 miles on this truck so far, and I I just feel like I, especially on the passenger side.

I cannot see everything I need to out of that passenger mirror and I keep adjusting it its not getting any better, so Im not sure whats going on there, but its kind of an odd Quirk of the whole thing I wouldnt say this is like a luxury. First experience thats not really the point of it, so it is a comfortable. It is soft in the sense of the body, moves around a lot and thats kind of expected out of an off roader. You want it to be soft, it makes it fairly comfortable both in the city and on the highway, but its not like a plush kind of soft, its its a little more youve got less body control than I would hope for is what Im getting at, but Doesnt mean its a bad ride. The ride, I think, is one of the strongest points of the vehicle kind of wherever you are with it. You know on road or off road. The throttle is really Progressive and linear its nice, because you know yes, this has a ton of power and a ton of torque but its its easy to just roll onto it, and you know not throw yourself back and really, unless youre doing that watts to Freedom. Launch control mode youre, not gon na, do that because it doesnt it doesnt, give you everything all at once. It ramps the power up pretty nicely either way. So I like how the throttle works.

Youve got true one pedal driving so again easy and Progressive. You can lift off the throttle to slow yourself down and you can come to a Full Stop, which is great itll dump energy back into the batteries, which is great and then youve got a paddle here on the left side of the steering wheel. That basically gives you extra regen braking if you want it or need it. So you know, if youre fully off the throttle – and you want a little bit more – you can click and hold this paddle and it will dump more into the batteries, and that is pretty nice and then otherwise, here like through an off ramp. This is where this you feel the weight. You feel the suspension. You feel everything. This is not a handling machine. It does not like to handle the steering, gets weirdly heavy as soon as you go off center with any sort of speed, and I think thats actually coming from both the tires and how theyve got the power steering programmed. It is very disconcerting, especially if youre trying to carry much speed, but you shouldnt be carrying much speed in this. I am comfortable doing it for the sake of like proving a point and testing things, but it really doesnt like you carrying speed. I was on some back roads yesterday and I I didnt have any like ocean moments, but I had some moments where I was very aware that I was asking it to do something that it really didnt want to do again.

I think it mostly comes down to the tires, but then its just very soft theres, a lot of body rolls all of that. On top of it, you know kind of you need to be careful with it. You know, as far as everything else people were asking online like: oh, how does it stop? I cant believe its nine thousand pounds. How are you going to stop this thing? It stops just fine. You know I do get concerned about the weight, because not only is it a lot of Mass to stop, especially once youre going highway speeds, in particular its a lot of Mass to stop between the regular brakes and the region. It will do it, but youre on altering tires that are not the grippiest thing on the road and then you also really have to consider the the impact of this much weight on all of your consumables. You know to say nothing of your impact on the earth. If youre off roading it like 9000 pounds is a lot of weight to go off roading with you have to worry about what that weight will do both to the vehicle you know. Do you have more more propensity to sink if youre on some soft terrain and also like youre, just beating up the Earth if youre, if youre doing this, with something thats nine thousand Pounds versus forty five hundred five thousand pounds? This is, you know its heavier than other EVS, even like a rivian r1t thats, another brand new electric pickup truck a Ford F, 150 lighting.

Another brand new electric pickup truck both of those are between 6 500 and 7 000 pounds. Do, I think, thats also acceptable. Well, no, but this is another almost 2 000 pounds on top of Arabian, and I just am not really sure where they got that weight. I just feel like this vehicle in particular, like there was an opportunity to sort of reinvent what a Hummer stood for and what it could be, and I feel like doing this as a full EV with all the capability is really awesome, because youre getting EVS into A segment which is to say very capable off roaders where they havent necessarily been yet or theyre just getting there. But this really leans hard into Old Hummer for the the images and the stigma, and I think its a little bit of a missed opportunity to maybe change what that brand or sub brand in this case kind of stands for now, as were back up to highway. Speed here worth mentioning, other driving characteristics like I was talking about the seats are fairly comfortable. I did most of my 460 some miles all in one day, and the seats were pretty good. Nothing really to complain about. The wind noise in here is substantial, just overall interior noise. For for how much this thing costs uh its noisy, you know its 110 000. It is, of course, like I said, not a luxury first kind of vehicle, its a capability first kind of vehicle and the issue with making something thats.

So blunt and boxy is youre, just pushing a big box through the wind. So youve got a lot of wind noise Im getting a lot right up here, where the windshield meets the roof. That is fairly noisy right there and then the tires are so loud. Youve got a lot of tire. Noise theyre all terrains its its. What youre gon na get with them and if youre buying this, you probably expect it, but its worth mentioning now final bit to talk about is just efficiency and charging um efficiency is poor. Like I said, nine thousand pounds doesnt do any favors, but this has a rated range of about 330 miles from GMC. The Ford F, 150 Lightning extended range has a rated range of about 330 miles from Fort Ford is getting that range with about 100 kilowatt hours. Less in their battery pack, which is to say the size of the container the size of the battery pack, is that much smaller. So what that means is Fords. F. 150 lighting is far more efficient. Much like you would think miles per gallon. You think miles per kilowatt hour here and thats part of the issue like driving the F 150 Lightning unloaded with no trailer. I was averaging about 2.3 miles per kilowatt hour driving. This unloaded Ive been averaging 1.2 miles per kilowatt hour in similar weather conditions. You know 40s to 50s during the day thats a big hit thats why the battery has to be so big to give it this kind of range, which means you add that curb weight, its always kind of the self fulfilling you know circular sort of thing of Chicken and egg as far as charging this is on that 800 volt architecture thats.

What ultium is it is rated to charge up to 350 kilowatts, which is on the surface very cool, very exciting, very, very fast, like that is really uh. What I think every EV needs if its got any sort of bigger battery the issue – and I was doing a lot of this yesterday, which none of you know what day it is, but the start of the Christmas holiday travel period so that Saturday kind of before Everything I dealt with a lot of chargers that were down where half the Chargers were broken and then uh, the ones that were working were rated for 350 kilowatts and could not output. That much so I was only getting at most about 175., so that was kind of irritating, not a problem with this vehicle, its just a problem with the charging infrastructure. Now the cool thing is Im using the built in GMC Hummer infotainment system, which uses Google Maps its connected. And if you put in your navigation directions – and it includes a charging, stop, it will start preconditioning the battery automatically, which is required to get all that charging speed. The other nice thing versus using Google Maps on car Player Android auto using the built in system, is it shows you your state of charge when you get to your destination, which is really nice. A lot of the other EVS will do that if you use their built in mapping, which I love, because you dont worry about range anxiety or anything, you just know, oh Im good to go.

This is how much is left. Okay and then the final thing to mention here is with off roading I didnt off road. This in the traditional sense, I got permission from a friend to basically tear up his side yard as part of a holiday party, and we had some fun with it and the interesting thing. This was kind of a grass mud sort of situation, not a rock crawling slow speed, sort of situation, and the interesting thing is that you know this has the the diff lockers as far as locking you know your your electric motors, so we tried it with the Rear one locked it worked fine. This is a very pushy vehicle in the front when you start trying to get rotate when its got low traction. The front end wants to just plow unless you completely lift off the throttle and really slow it down to make it bite and turn. In now granted we were on basically mud. I cant say how that would work in snow. I cant say how that would work in any other sort of terrain, but in that moment it was surprising how much it did not want to rotate all right. That is it for this review of the 2022 Hummer EV pickup Edition one. Thank you so much for coming along. I know this was a longer one. There was so much to cover its a very exciting vehicle, whether you like it or not, please be sure to like share comment and subscribe right here on YouTube.

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