Well, it seems weird to me that they made it a GMC, not a standalone brand. But at least GM has finally built something that has a chance of challenging Tesla in the cool factor area.
It's definitely interesting. Totally did not expect it. It sounds like it's going to be rather fast, since it makes 1,000 HP, and goes from 0-60 MPH in three seconds. I'm also assuming that its range is going to be a lot better than its predecessor's MPG. I do wonder though, how come they're making it a GMC instead of reviving the Hummer brand? And if the Hummer is coming back, what does this mean for Pontiac? Since both were axed off by GM because of the Recession.
Think about how much cheaper and easier it is for them to do this. If they revived the Hummer marque as a standalone brand, they'd have to put the money and time into creating an entire business division and separate marketing campaigns, convincing dealership owners to spend the money to make themselves Hummer Buick GMC instead of Buick GMC, etc. Calling an electric GMC a Hummer and giving it a vaguely H3-esque front end will save them possibly millions, and people will still get a truck that says "Hummer" on it.
I think it's fine, but it makes me wish that GMC did more exclusive vehicles like this for their brand, to justify their existence in the first place instead of repriced Chevrolets with different badges (and later Chevrolets with some redesigning). I do hope that it looks somewhat decent though (and is a improvement over the actual Hummers), because if it doesn't I'm not going to even care about what GMC does at this point.
Multiple different flavors of travesty. And since someone mentioned Pontiac, I don't want them back either if they're going to come back electric.
Of course you'd say that, because you are so closed minded to any form of powering a vehicle outside of the internal combustion engine. The original Hummers were a joke. If done right, this has potential to be something good. I'm not going to pretend that I know for sure that it's going to be great, I'm not a clairvoyant, I can't see the future. We'll see if this new GMC Hummer EV does indeed make a positive name for itself, or if it turns out to be as much of a joke as its predecessors were. Either way, similar to what Mullethead said, I will give props to GMC for trying something new, something outside of a bunch of rebadged Chevrolets. If Pontiac came back as electric, I wouldn't mind it, but that's not what I'd expect to happen. I'd expect them to return with mostly gas powered vehicles with a few electric options. What most companies are doing already. Well it is a teaser where most of its features are darkened out. Most likely it'll look better when we actually see the vehicle when its revealed on May 20th. I find that interesting, because its reveal will come four days before the 10 year anniversary of GM giving the Hummer brand the axe.
And you would be the one to say the originals were a joke. I'm no great fan of them myself - I consider "luxury SUV" to be a contradiction in terms - but they were better than this... random amalgamation of things that don't fit together. And as far as Pontiac coming back electric - this is post-bankruptcy GM, remember? There is nothing I would put past them at this point.
Sometimes I wonder if I should post my dashcam videos to one of the reddit threads or something... Usually I see people doing stupid things like running lights and driving on the wrong side of the road. In those cases at least I can think "well they are probably just an ass, but there's a slim chance they have a good reason to be rushing" Today though I can't explain it. I'm pulling into a spot from the behind one (two empty spots head to head). The parking lot isn't terribly crowded, there's plenty of empty spots in the area. Yet someone felt the need to back into the one that I was half into... Speaking of backing up, every day I'm more convinced that back up cameras are useless for most of the population because people cannot comprehend that they exist to suplement, not replace, your eyeballs. It's amazing how often I see cars with backup cameras back into large obvious things...
And I'm not the only one who's ever said it. It seems almost universally agreed upon, even by some hardcore car enthusiasts, as Hummers do occasionally pop up on lists of worst cars ever. I can't say its entirely universal, as I do see some people who thinks the opposite, but I still do see a lot of criticism for the old Hummers. Common criticisms I see for the old Hummers are their MPG, massive size, and that visibility inside them is terrible, by that I mean large blind spots. I would expect that the GMC Hummer EV would improve upon these criticisms by having better range, not being as big, and being easier to see out of. Yes, I know that. Considering that modern electric cars are in their infancy, if GM wanted to bring back Pontiac, they would have to consider what is economically feasible for them. The GMC Hummer EV is only one new electric vehicle that's being produced under an existing brand that also mostly produces gas vehicles, reviving an entire brand that hasn't been around for nearly 10 years in order to produce nothing but several new all electric vehicles would be a huge gamble. In the end, I currently doubt we'll ever see Pontiac again, thought I can easily be wrong. Who knows? Maybe GM will surprise me again.
Like I said, I'm no great fan of them. But they are the antithesis of the second-generation Toyota Prius, which I consider to be in a dead heat with the Citroen 2CV for the title of "most uncool car ever made", so that does score some points with me. They're taking something I could agree with, at least on principle, and perverting it into its own exact opposite. Better range? You're joking, right? Not being as big? So in other words, it's not really a Hummer and is just using the name because they didn't think the design would work as a GMC? True, but remember two things: 1. GM has already sold out to "woke capitalism". When they were developing that dopey little electric rental scooter, they were bragging about all the zero visions they'd bought into like that was actually a good thing. 2. It seems to be a law of the universe now that anything which is sacred to car culture - or has opposed its enemies in any way at some point, for that matter - has be be killed, buried, and the grave urinated upon. I mean, how else do you explain bicycles being allowed at the Nurburgring, or being more common in the California canyons (i.e. the spiritual home of American mountain pass racing) than just about anywhere else in the US including a lot of urban areas? Now remember that Pontiac was the black sheep of GM - in 1964, they designed and built a car aimed directly at street racers, apparently available mainly through unofficial sources at first, in the process ripping off a name Ferrari had forgotten to trademark. When the insurance mafia tried to slam the door on high performance, they played the name game instead of giving in. In 1973 or thereabouts, when the first wave of federal emissions standards made it more difficult and expensive to certify a new engine for sale, they tried to get around that by partially-redesigning their engine, and then leaving the displacement the same so that they could try to pass it off as a minor variation on the old already-certified engine. Even during and after the Automotive Dark Ages, when they had become a hollowed-out marketing front (again because of regulations), they continued to sell their cars on a leftover image of cheap sportiness - not cheap luxury, not sporty luxury - for decades. When the bankruptcy hit, they were, as far as I know, in the process of converting back to an all-RWD lineup - exactly the opposite of the low-power, low-style, high-MPG Proletarian Transportation Modules the authorities wish to force. Their slogan might as well have been "I paid for the whole speedometer, I'm gonna use the whole speedometer!" In other words, they made their entire reputation by being the brand that told "the man" exactly what to do with their rules, as often within GM as outside of it. You won't convince me that some arrogant upper-cruster somewhere within GM wouldn't get a kick out of bringing back the name to sell cars that are exactly what "the man" wants them to be, especially when the overall plan seems to be to hide the expense and impracticality of EVs by selling them as sports/luxury cars instead of everyday ones. You also won't convince me that it wouldn't work in this era where design-by-committee is praised and everyone seems to believe they have a moral obligation to wholeheartedly want whatever "the man" wants.
I haven't looked into the EV Hummer, but like I said with the Cybertruck... Do we really want to make a crossbreed of stereotypical EV owners and stereotypical Hummer H2/H3 Hummer owners? Is that really what society needs right now?.. Also, this idea is just as good as the Hybrid Tahoe was. Take that as you will. Also, bicyles on the Nurburgring sounds fun actually. Assuming reasonable traffic patterns.
...not for anyone else, assuming they're allowed to do that under normal circumstances and not just on special days. But I'm sure the people who run it would be happy to side with you either way, I mean they already banned lap timing. They've made very clear, on multiple occasions, that they'd rather cater to mobile chicanes than to serious drivers. I seriously want to slap the people who run that place. It should be the closest thing we have to a legalized arrive-and-drive mountain pass time attack, but instead they run it like a freakin' tourist trap.
