• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, Yesterday

The Hummer brand evokes an image of a tank-like vehicle that guzzles gas. 

That was the Hummer of old. Enter the GMC Hummer EV 3X pickup, which runs solely on electricity. It features a triple-motor setup producing up to 1,000 horsepower and 11,500 lb-ft of torque, achieving 0–60 mph in under 3 seconds, with an estimated driving range of up to 363 to 381 miles.

This is not the mini tank of the brand’s first incarnation. It’s large, but exceedingly comfortable with all the luxury bells and whistles you’d expect for a $131,810 total vehicle price. 

We’re talking 12-way power front bucket seats with 4-way lumbar with available heated or ventilated. Other features include heated rear outboard seats, heated steering wheel, a Bose premium surround sound system with 14 speakers. 

The 13.4 inch diagonal premium GMC infotainment system has high contrast display, Google built-in capability and navigation capability. 

One pain point is, like all General Motors EVs (except the current generation Cadillac Lyriq), there is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. But I was able to download the Waze app and use that for navigation, along with the native navigation app that pointed me to charging stations.  

One cool feature is that the back seats flip up, revealing a huge swath of rear storage inside the vehicle. The floors are covered in a durable rubber that makes hauling messy things easy.

I headed over to my neighbors’s house to pick up three 5-gallon water buckets, a siphon and a watering bucket. I filled the buckets at his house and there was plenty of room for everything inside the vehicle. 

I could have put them in the pickup portion, but the spacious back seat area worked just fine. 

He happens to work for GMC, so he showed me how to flip them up and also how to use the built-in MultiPro tailgate step. The factory tailgate folds down and features an integrated inner step that pulls out for easy climbing into the truck bed. 

Since I’m still in the process of installing a home charger, I did find myself at public fast chargers several times over the course of the week.

A friend asked if a large vehicle like the Hummer takes longer to charge. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it does not. It takes roughly 40–45 minutes to charge from 20% to 80% at a 350 kW DC Fast Charger (Level 3). The Hummer EV can leverage its 800-volt architecture at these public stations to maintain high charging speeds.

A home level 2 charger (240v) would have been much cheaper and I could have “filled up” going from 0–100% overnight in about 16 hours. I always advise anyone considering an EV to check the installation price of a home charger before they decide on the EV purchase.

The GMC Hummer works like a generator -- and in the event of a power outage, you can use its built-in bidirectional power system as a source of backup power. 

While the vehicle is much more refined than its predecessor, it still looks pretty badass coming down the road. That’s an attribute from the original that I’m glad it kept.