GMC started filling pre-orders and shipping its impressively powerful Hummer EV late last year. So many people bought one that the company closed the reservation list, and it’s sold out until 2024. But GMC has a big problem that should worry buyers—it’s only building 12 Hummer electric trucks per day.
Production started in December of 2021, and while several trucks rolled off the assembly line, GM only delivered one Hummer EV to a paying customer by year’s end. One! And while things are going a bit quicker here in 2022, the situation hasn’t improved much.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, GMC only builds around 12 vehicles per day. That’s a problem and not nearly enough. That production volume is unusually low for a truck in production for over six months, especially considering GM has over 77,000 orders to fill. Doing the math here, at its current pace (six months in), it would take over 17 years to complete that pre-order list.
In March, GMC’s global VP Duncan Aldred confirmed the huge pre-order list and said it was much higher than the company initially expected. As a result, GMC put several things in place to expedite production. We are in July, though, and things aren’t moving nearly fast enough.
It’s worth noting that we’re still in the middle of a global chip shortage, dramatically slowing production on just about everything, including EVs. Furthermore, a GM spokesperson said the company wants to ensure quality as it introduces the new technology and that output will increase sharply in the year’s second half.
The GMC Hummer EV is an expensive truck costing well over $115,000, so the company could be rolling things a little slower than usual. Plus, not all of the 77,000 pre-orders will end up filling their order when the time comes. Still, it’s a worrying situation that will hopefully improve as 2022 progresses.
GMC previously said it would release different variations at a lower price point. Starting with the Hummer EV3X for $99,994, followed by the EV2X for $89,994 in 2023, and the EV1X for $79,994 in 2024. If the company plans on offering more affordable trim levels, it needs to get through the initial batch a lot quicker than 12 a day.
