Does powering a Hummer with electricity turn a gas-guzzler into a pillar of efficiency? Unfortunately, it does not. The 2023 GMC Hummer EV 3X Pickup is wildly inefficient for an EV, but our real-world testing shows that the Hummer EV is still a great electric vehicle. Due to an extra-large battery, its real-world range is long enough to compensate for the fact that it weighs more than 9,000 pounds, and impressive fast charging speeds mean that it takes a charge pretty quickly.
About That Battery…
General Motor's Ultium battery architecture is a serious upgrade from the Chevy Bolt's hardware, so check any opinions you may have formed about that little electric wedge at the door. The Hummer EV is the GMC's first electric, and the 2023 Hummer EV Edition 1 Pickup was the first vehicle from GM with an Ultium battery.
The Ultium platform uses pouch cells that can be stood on edge or laid flat, allowing for versatile packaging across different vehicles. In the Hummer EV, two layers are stacked vertically to make a 24-module battery pack with a 205-kWh capacity. Out of the 41 EVs we tested in 2023, that's the largest by a big margin, with the runner-up found in the Rivian R1T at 135 kWh.
GMC Hummer EV 3X Pickup Fast-Charging Capability
The charging system can support DC fast-charging at 400 volts or 800 volts at a rate of up to 350 kW. That means the Hummer EV will play nice at nearly any DC fast-charger and will take advantage of the fastest ones. It also supports Level 1 and Level 2 AC charging for convenient home charging or when no DC fast chargers are available.
We initiated battery pre-conditioning before charging by searching for a charging station with the onboard navigation system. A message popped up on the center screen that battery conditioning had started, with an estimate of about an hour to complete. That is a common estimate, but not all vehicles give an estimate or notification when conditioning is complete. Our Hummer EV 3X took about 40 minutes.
We saw a peak speed of 264 kW—a good bit below GMC's claim—while charging from 5 percent to 100 percent, and even then the Hummer EV 3X only took 75 minutes to charge its massive battery. That means the Hummer reached a higher charging power than every vehicle we've tested so far except for our long-term 2022 Lucid Air GTP. The Air GTP hit 314 kW at the same Electrify America charging station a few months earlier, proving that faster speeds than we saw with the Hummer are possible. How well a public charger works on a given day is anyone's guess, and and given the opportunity with a Hummer, we'd happily give it another go.
What's most remarkable about the Hummer EV is how long it can maintain high rates of charging. It charged at over 200 kW for 27 minutes—many EVs aren't even rated that high—and stayed above 100 kW from the start of charging for 60 minutes until the battery reached 89 percent. From 80 percent, it only required 23 minutes to reach 100 percent while averaging 110 kW. Many EVs are designed to slow down after 80 percent SOC to preserve battery longevity and can take an hour or more for that last 20 percent in some cases.
How Far can the GMC Hummer EV Go in the Real World?
Range and efficiency are somewhat contradictory metrics for the Hummer EV. Our MotorTrend Road-Trip Range for the Hummer is an impressive 310 miles, which is a reasonable 13 percent below GMC's estimate. Our 70-mph range test uses 95 percent of the battery capacity, so it's normal for EVs to fall short of their EPA estimates while giving a more realistic expectation of what's possible on longer trips. The Hummer handily beats the Rivian R1T Launch Edition on all-season tires and the Ford F-150 Lighting Lariat Extended Range, which have respective MT Road-Trip ranges of 243 miles and 255.
Efficiency, on the other hand, is where the Hummer EV suffers. Calculated efficiency including charging losses was only 1.5 miles per kWh. The big battery is the secret to its range, compensating for less than ideal aerodynamics and the extra heft of said large battery. It isn't fiscally efficient, either, costing more than $100 to fully charge at a public station. This is part of why any EPA ratings regarding EVs can be hard to interpret. It cost us $0.32/mile to run the Hummer in our fuel economy test while a 2023 GMC Sierra 1500 with its least efficient 6.2-liter V-8 hitting the 17-mpg EPA combined rating would cost $0.24 per mile. The math works out in the electric Hummer's favor if you charge at home where electricity is cheaper, although we're not sure it matters. Who buys a six-figure super truck because it's light on the wallet?
The Hummer is a brute-force solution to the EV range dilemma, but bigger batteries adding range and weight is a battle EVs will face until significant innovations like solid-state batteries come to market. It isn't perfect, but if the GMC Hummer EV 3X Pickup is a sign of what we can expect from other GM electrics, lighter and more aero-efficient designs can only mean even better Ultium vehicles following this solid debut.
2023 GMC Hummer EV 3X Pickup Range and Fast-Charging: Big Range, Big Cost - MotorTrend
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