General Motors said it has sold out the first year’s worth of its hulking GMC Hummer EV electric pickup truck following a splashy video reveals on Tuesday.
The GMC website showed a “reservations full” banner over the Hummer EV “Edition 1,” due to begin production in the fall of the next year. The next version of the truck, the $99,995 Hummer EV 3X, is not scheduled to start production until the fall of 2022.
The least expensive Hummer EV, starting at $79,995, is set to go into production in the spring of 2024, the automaker said.
The Hummer EV was designed and engineered in 18 months, the automaker’s officials said during a presentation on Wednesday. The brawny truck can “crab walk” sideways on rough terrain using its four-wheel steering system, and includes a “Watts to Freedom” mode that accelerates the truck to 60 miles per hour (97 kph) in just 3 seconds.
The Hummer EV is in part a response to Tesla Inc’s Cybertruck, which has a significantly different but equally eye-grabbing design and a number of extreme performance features. The Cybertruck’s starting price is $39,900, whereas a model with 500 miles of range starts at $69,900.
Tesla has started construction of a factory in Austin, Texas to build the Cybertruck starting in late 2021.
GM’s GMC division head, Duncan Aldred, said that about half the brand’s dealers have agreed to sell the Hummer EV lineup. The automaker is taking orders on its website, and Aldred said the intent is to offer no-haggle prices.
High-performance electric pickup trucks could be a crowded niche in the American market, with eight companies vowing to introduce models by the end of the next year.
