Scoop! 2022 GMC Hummer EV pick-up secretly lands in Australia
Do Aussie buyers really want a big electric ute with 745kW? General Motors may be on a mission to find out, with a brand-new Hummer EV landing in Sydney this week.
UPDATE, Thursday 6 October 2022: The mystery has been solved! It has been confirmed the 2022 GMC Hummer EV caught by our spy at Sydney Airport earlier this week was brought over to be used in a new movie starring Ryan Gosling.
Click here to learn about the Hummer’s role in the film.
The original story story continues unchanged below.
Wednesday 5 October 2022: A 2022 GMC Hummer EV has arrived on Australian soil, signalling the possibility of the electric pick-up being offered in our market.
While not confirmed by the US car giant, the Hummer EV is thought to have been brought over by General Motors, arriving on Tuesday on a Qantas flight to Sydney from Chicago – the closest Qantas Freight hub to GM's headquarters in Detroit.
The Hummer EV’s biggest feature is its powertrain – offering a claimed 530km of range, and putting out 746kW and an estimated 1485Nm to 2033Nm from its three electric motors, allowing the 4100kg pick-up to complete the 0-100km/h sprint in a claimed 3.1 seconds.
Its 800-volt system can accept 160km of range in 10 minutes using a 350kW fast charger, but the Hummer's party piece is its ‘crab walk’, which uses its four-wheel steering to move the vehicle diagonally at low speeds.
Last month, General Motors announced it had halted orders for the model, after receiving more than 90,000 reservations in North America – taking production allocation out to 2024. Both the Edition 1 pick-up and the Hummer SUV sold out 10 minutes after going on sale in the US.
These images obtained by Drive show the Hummer EV wrapped in a protective plastic film, with the ute’s underside showing no visible signs of wear, suggesting the vehicle has come straight off the production line and put on a flight to Australia.
GM may be testing Australia’s appetite for a high-performance full-size electric pick-up, and the Hummer could be the precursor to bringing the Chevrolet Silverado EV here to be sold alongside its petrol-powered sibling under the GMSV banner. A direct competitor to the Ford F-150 Lightning, which could follow the petrol-powered F-150 to our shores.
The Hummer EV’s arrival comes hot off the heels of Toyota revealing its intention to bring the Tundra pick-up to Australia for evaluation, and follows Ford’s decision to offer the F-150 as part of its local line-up – putting targets on the backs of the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500.
If the Hummer EV was brought to Australia, the ute would need to have its payload reduced to less than 400kg to make it driveable with a standard car licence – otherwise it would need to be registered as a light truck, available only to those with a heavy vehicle licence.
Since Holden Special Vehicles came to an end, parent company Walkinshaw has transformed its business to convert Ram and Chevrolet pick-ups to right-hand-drive for the Australian market – and has been been selected by Toyota to lead development of the right-hand-drive Tundra.
But with battery-powered vehicles utilising electric steering and pedals, manufacturing right-hand-drive variants could potentially be a lot cheaper and easier to do than is the case with traditional internal-combustion engine models, making a more attractive business model for selling electric vehicles in Australia.
Drive has contacted GMSV about the Hummer EV’s arrival in Australia, and will update this story with its response.
Thanks to our anonymous spy for providing these images. If you have a scoop, please get in touch with us via our About Us page.
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