Motor Authority Says GMC Hummer EV is “King of the Off-Road Hill”

The Hummer EV SUV spec and feature lists devote plenty of line items toward off-road ability, but is it really off-road capable?  Enthusiast site Motor Authority was among those invited to famous Moab, Utah, to find out how well the Hummer EV SUV operates long past when the pavement ends, and this Valley GMC post gives you the highlights.

The Hummer EV SUV shares one thing with its distant gas-powered ancestor: size. At 86.5 inches wide, it’s almost half a foot wider than a Suburban, which is enough to legally require front and rear rooftop lights. The original Hummer H2 was also no lightweight, but the 6,600 lb SUV would go flying off the see-saw when the over 9,000-pound EV SUV drops down on the other side. However, size and weight are not exactly advantageous to off-roading, and while the Hummer EV SUV did not make these characteristics disappear, its ability and features certainly mitigate them. 

One of the most unique aspects of off-roading in the Hummer EV SUV is the silence. As expressed by Motor Authority: “The silence of off-roading an EV envelops you in the natural world instead of estranging you from it as in a combustion vehicle, a conqueror vanquishing its natural foe. The gasp of the air suspension, the caw of a hawk, the hum of the HVAC, the whisper of a breeze, the squish of rocks under the Goodyear Wrangler 305/70R18 35-inch mud-terrain tires, the sun-baked earth pushing back—that’s all there was, until the end.”

They point out that, large as it is, the SUV has an advantage for this kind of action over the pickup, with an 8.9-inch shorter wheelbase and 20 fewer inches in overall length. Both breakover and departure angles are better than those of the truck.

The author has high praise for the Extreme Off-Road package. At $9,995, it is not cheap, but it makes the vehicle significantly better at what it is built for. Included in the package are:

• 18″ LT305/70R18 Goodyear® Wrangler Territory® MT tires
• 18″ Black aluminum wheels with machined accents
• Four additional skid plates (including front differential, battery, and rear differential)
• Electronically locking front and rear differential with Heavy-Duty Ball Spline Half Shafts
• Forward and Rearward underbody cameras
• Rear D-Ring Recovery Hook
• Rocker Protectors with Assist Steps

The cameras, with 17 views, were key in mitigating the vehicle’s size. They allow you to see what you normally can’t see in a vehicle of any size, such as what is directly before the front and rear axles. The second feature to mitigate size is the rear steering. The author never needed CrabWalk but found the rear wheels, with up to 10 degrees of counter phase, able to work their way around obstructions. 

While the off-road is best suited for high-speed off-pavement running, Terrain mode is what you select for the slow-crawling, which raises the ground clearance from 10.1 to 11.9 inches and modulates throttle input for more precise modulation, among other things. The author describes his activity: “I preferred moving the gear shifter from D to L for the max regenerative braking. This enabled me to brake with my left foot and throttle with my right both up and down slopes to keep the wheels moving but not allow the SUV to move too much. Just leaving it in L, where under 5 mph the mode uses all friction braking, resulted in the kind of jerkiness that might have made me go off the throttle entirely and lose momentum. There’s so much going on at all four corners, but all I had to do was point and go, really. It made me a better off-roader, and it all felt seamless, almost natural.”

He said this about the Hummer EV SUV’s range: “Off-roading for seven hours over a 16-mile trail with an elevation change of more than 2,500 feet, and driving about 85 miles there and back, never once amounted to range anxiety. I had 124 miles of range remaining from the 295-mile start.”

It all shows that the Hummer EV SUV is the real deal and that there is truly no other production vehicle like it. The model as tested was a 3X with the Extreme Off-Road Package. An MSRP of $116,690 can certainly induce sticker shock. However, if you are looking for the best on and off-road capability electrons have to offer, pay a visit to Valley GMC in Auburn, WA, where we have an impressive inventory of both Hummer models and see what the future of on and off-roading is all about.