If you want a GMC Hummer EV, you can’t get one right now. Did you order one? You’ll have to wait a bit longer to get it. And if you own one, expect a recall as water can leak into the battery housing. We all know what happens when you combine water and electricity. GM issued a stop-sale order until it has a fix.

Where is water leaking into the GMC Hummer?

The recall also includes GM’s Brightdrop EV600 vans with the same layout as the Hummer. A faulty battery seal is the culprit, and as of now, GM is aware of three incidents where water wreaked havoc. Two Hummers would not start, and the third lost power while driving. 

GM says flanges on the battery enclosure “may not have been properly primed or electro-coated, inhibiting proper adhesion of the urethane sealant.” It goes on to advise that if water does cause issues that “one or more malfunction indicator lamps may illuminate,” on the driver display.

Unfortunately, water intrusion issues have plagued the GMC Hummer. Leaking seals around the A-pillars was the first problem. This affects window switches and also mirror adjustments. GM issued a technical service bulletin to correct the problem. Owners have also experienced water pooling around the removable roof panels.

How many Hummer EVs are affected by the recall?

So far, the recall involves 735 GMC Hummers and 89 Brightdrop vans. There have been no accidents or injuries reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or to GM. Unfortunately, right now GM does not have a fix for the leakage. 

What’s worse is that battery accessibility is not so simple to achieve. So dealers may find the recall to be more time-consuming than others, but that’s the nature of the problem.

This isn’t the first recall over water leaking issues. A voluntary recall was issued in August for water leaking into high-voltage battery connectors. This can cause premature corrosion. The fix was to use sealant applied to the connectors. Because this was a voluntary recall, it wasn’t a safety issue. But Hummer owners should take heed and have the sealant applied by dealers. 

How many recalls has the Hummer had so far?

In March, a taillight software issue resulted in a Hummer recall. It can’t be corrected with over-the-air software updates even though software-related. So owners still had to take their vehicles to a dealer to have the problem corrected. Because production was very low around this time, the number of affected vehicles was low. Since that time, GM has slowly ramped up Hummer production. 

With the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra EVs using identical layouts to the Hummer, the stalking horse fixes eliminate these issues when production begins. It will also help speed up the production of this series of EV trucks. 

To see if your GMC Hummer is affected, you can enter the VIN into the GM Owner Center. You can also contact the NHTSA’s Vehicle Safety Hotline.