Hummer EV to go racing in Extreme E championship

The idea of Hummer winning any contests other than “Heaviest” or “Ugliest” seems slightly absurd, but not as crazy as the idea of entering one into a race series. 

Those biases, of course, are based on a time when Hummer’s were some of the thirstiest drinkers of fossil fuels since the Apollo space program, but the next Hummer will be an environmentally friendly electric vehicle, the 2022 GMC Hummer EV, and it’s the vehicle that’s set to go racing.

Well, kind of.

The Hummer EV is entering the impending Extreme E electric off-road championship. Sanctioned by the FIA, this slightly weird-beard sounding race series is, in fact, a one-make championship, where cars have identical electric motors, batteries and overall body shape but can change some design aspects such as the grille, stickers and colours.

That is similar to Nascar, which has a standardised silhouette that allows different brands to run separate stickers for differentiation.

Hummer’s involvement, then, in conjunction with the Chip Ganassi Racing Team, is really a sponsorship play, The Ganassi cars will have Hummer “bodywork” and graphics as part of a deal with GMC.

You might recall that Lewis Hamilton caused a stir when it was announced he would be involved with Extreme E electric off-road championship, but he will only be running a team, not deigning to drive in it. 

That could be partly because it sounds a bit like a Seniors Championship of racing, with drivers including rally Gods Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz (the older one), who will probably kick everyone’s butts, and F1 World champ Jenson Button. 

On the plus side, our own very talented rallyistand 2016 Australian rally champion Molly Taylor will also be there.

Interestingly, the Hummer racer will actually be slower than the production car, which is set to make up to a frightening 735kW and will sprint to 100km/h in three seconds flat. Despite being the size of a Hummer.

Hummer is also spending big bucks on stepping up the infotainment and ensuring it has the driving excitement befitting the brand, something that includes a thumping Bose sound system.

The race car for the championship, the Spark Odyssey 21, makes a piddling 400kW and will take a snoring 4.5 seconds to hit 100km/h. But it is off-road racing.

“I can’t think of a better fit than showcasing the look of GMC’s Hummer EV in Extreme E with Chip Ganassi Racing,” said General Motors Vice President of Performance and Motorsports, Jim Campbell.

“Both GMC Hummer EV and the Extreme E series are designed to be revolutionary – to challenge perceptions of electric vehicles and to showcase their true capability.”