Have you heard? GM is about to bring back the Hummer but this time as an all electric pickup truck. If you know anything about the Hummer, It is arguably the most polarizing vehicle of the last decade until the Cybertruck came along and took over that title. With it’s 10 mpg rating and it’s obnoxiously imposing look, it is no wander why the Hummer was widely regarded as the worst car ever made ever particularly by us EV lovers. The Hummer symbolized all that is wrong with American machismo and excess.
What better way for GM to launder it’s fraught reputation and gain some EV street cred by transforming the most environmentally unfriendly car ever made to the most environmentally friendly car ever made with it’s announcement that it’s preparing to relaunch the Hummer as an EV. According to the Wall Street Journal, GM has also enlisted the help of no one other than the ‘King’ himself – LeBron James (GOOO LAKERS), for an ad spot that will be aired during the Super Bowl. With this move, GM plans to signify to the auto industry and market that’s it is committed to a sustainable future and it’s not here to play around with a hybrid.
Unlike Tesla which I can confidently say has never advertised on the Super Bowl (or any other other place for that matter) GM is no stranger when it comes to shelling out big bucks for Super Bowl ads. Slated for an early 2022 release, the all electric Hummer will be only the first of numerous battery-powered large SUVs and pickups that the GM plans to be launching in the coming years. There are no images of the revived Hummer yet but that hasn’t stopped the internet from speculating and rendering.
The all electric Hummer pickup truck will be GM’s answer to the fervor and tremendous interest stirred up by the Tesla Cybertruck. With 200,000+ pre-orders and counting, Tesla has been able to tap into something that many thought died with the Hummer. Not since the era of the Hummer have we seen this much rabid enthusiasm towards an obnoxious looking hunk of metal.
You might wonder why GM is even bothering to bring back a relic of the past. However there is a reason why you still see Hummers on the road to this day. Say what you want about the Hummer, it was a resounding worldwide success. The only reason GM pulled the plug on the Hummer was due to it’s bankruptcy and later restructuring in 2009. All told, GM sold more than 300,000 Hummers from 2000 onward, with peak sales in 2006.
According to the Wall Street Journal, GM has no plans at the moment for a gas- or diesel-powered version this for the revived Hummer, just an electric – further proof that GM is really taking it’s EV journey (starting with the Chevy Volt) very seriously which is a smart move by the automaker. Also the Hummer brand and name is internationally known and renowned which is worth more to GM alive than dead. The #1 reason why the original Hummers garnered so much hate and vitriol was because it was unnecessarily wasteful and extremely polluting. Now there is a real possibility of GM converting those haters into loyal fans and customers by replacing the Hummer’s needless carbon polluting history with a zero emissions future. That would leave GM with one of the most memorable vehicles of the last 30 years minus the tons of ozone depleting carbon.
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