2025 GMC Hummer EV Review: A direct rival for the Tesla Cybertruck and Benz E Wagen … for all the wrong reasons

Now look, I’m not saying the GMC Hummer EV is the worst thing I’ve ever driven, although it might be. But I will say it’s the stupidest, and that’s coming from someone who’s driven Tesla’s Cybertruck and the Mercedes-Benz G580 E Wagen.

You might say I’ve become, by unfortunate accident, an expert in rating the very worst, and wildest, ideas that car companies have. Which is why I felt obliged to drive the electric Hummer, even though I didn’t have to.

This giant blunder bus was just sitting there, one of the many vehicles on offer as part of a GM Global Drive Day I was attending in the US, mainly to evaluate the next two big things from Cadillac; the Optiq and Vistiq EVs, which I can’t tell you about yet (other than to say that the small-ish Optiq, which will be the entry-level Cadillac when it arrives later this year, looks surprisingly attractive in the flesh).

The Hummer was like one of those rides at a theme park that you know you probably won’t enjoy but you feel compelled to try anyway. Frankly, I’ve been on ghost trains that felt  less dark and claustrophobic inside than this Hummer. 

The windscreen is about the size of a lunchbox lid, the windows are similarly stupid and the overall effect is like driving a car while wearing the kind of helmet that some brave idiots used to go jousting in. 

While the GMC Hummer EV looks from the outside like it’s this incredibly solid vehicle, everything you touch is just nasty and surprisingly thin, with cheap plastic switches that feel completely out of place; even the indicator stalk feels like a child’s toy. I can’t imagine a Hummer buyer appreciating that, but then I can’t imagine a Hummer buyer at all.

Surely it can’t be a matter of trying to save weight because this thing is already packing more kilograms than an NFL team. 

2025 GMC Hummer EV: price and equipment

The only thing that made me feel better about the Hummer EV is that GM is not importing it into Australia, because surely it knows Australians are too wise and restrained for such Uncle Sam Foolery.

Imagine my aghast, then, when I learned that you can buy a Hummer EV Down Under, if you’re insane, thanks to the people at Global Conversions, a UAE-based company that specialises in right-hand-drive conversions and is selling the Hummer to more than 77 countries “with Australia at the top of the list”.

Oh and indeed my. Global Conversions will offer both versions of the world’s ugliest EV, eventually, in Australia, but there’s no word on timing or pricing yet.

In the US the entry-level starts at $149,879, in our money, while the 3x is $162,062. Fools will soon be parted with a lot more than that to get into right-hand-drive versions; think $250k plus. I wish them ill will.

2025 GMC Hummer EV: What we think

Aside from how awful the interior fit and finish was, the one I drove also had a nasty plastic humming and rattling from the dash, which was so loud I could hear it over my own bitching and whining.

The biggest problem, however, was that no-one told me I had chosen the shittier variant of the Hummer EV. While one of my colleagues was off giggling himself stupid in the “3x” tri-motor version, which can somehow hit 100km/h in 3.5 seconds, thanks to a frightening 745kW and 15,600Nm output (the launch control system is called WTF – Watts To Freedom, which is cute), I had been lumped with the base model two-motor, which has only 466kW and just 1485Nm but can apparently tow 5443kg and offers a range of 500km, thanks to a double layer of batteries under the floor (205kWh in total).

Yes, that 15,600Nm does sound unlikely for the tri-motor version, and yes, I do wish I’d driven it.

Unlike the silly Cybertruck and the bonkers Benz E Wagen, the twin-motor Hummer does not impress you with its gut-punching acceleration. You might not believe me when I tell you that 466kW can feel a bit lame and uninteresting, but if it’s trying to haul a vehicle that’s bigger, and wider, than Tasmania it really does.

So, dull in a straight line, but that’s not the Hummer EV’s worst feature, far from it, because if you attempt to throw it at a corner with any kind of vigour it acts like a Jenga tower being hit with a baseball bat. 

You get the full squealing Hollywood tyres thing, followed by a similar amount of squealing from the driver as he attempts to wrestle the steering wheel and get at least some of this monstrous truck back on the road. 

Christ, I may have yelled, this is a truly enormous shit box.

2025 GMC Hummer EV: Verdict

Is there any way we can put a tariff on this thing big enough that no-one can buy one in Australia? Because I really don’t want to share the roads with it. Nor ever have to drive one again. 

SCORE: 1/5

GMC Hummer EV specifications

Price: $TBA but a LOT
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, HUGE SUV, AWD
Range: 500km
Battery capacity: 205kWh lithium-ion
Battery warranty: TBA
Energy consumption: 39.4kWh/100km (approx)
Motors: 2 motors, 466kW/1485Nm combined
AC charging: 22kW (approx)
DC charging: 350kW (max)
0-100km/h: 5.5 seconds