You’ll Never Get a GMC Hummer EV at This Rate
In July, we told you about GMC’s plan to ramp up production of its highly anticipated Hummer EV. At the time, the company was making 12 Hummers a day. That sounded like a good idea to, you know, get it right and ensure no quality glitches. But now, we’re eight months beyond that, and GMC is still making 12 Hummer EVs a day.
How many Hummer EV orders has GMC received?
That’s right — GMC Hummer EV production has been at the same number since July, the Wall Street Journal reports. We have a lot of questions about why that’s happening. The most pressing is what GMC is telling the 90,000 reservation holders. Based on our arithmetic, those reservations will take 25 years to fulfill at the current production pace.
GMC says it has closed reservations for the next two years. Fulfilling all 90,000 orders in two years will happen only if the manufacturer can go from 12 to approximately 150 daily. That number is based on six-day workweeks for two years and two weeks of downtime per year.
Would more shifts or more assembly workers help?
We don’t know if the 12-a-day number is one, two, or three shifts. So our figures include many variables. And if GMC could produce Hummer EVs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for all 52 weeks a year, the figures would decrease slightly.
Still, unless production ramps up exceedingly fast, most reservation holders will never get their GMC Hummer EVs. And it raises heavy concerns about General Motors’ ability to compete in the electrification game.
What about other GM EVs?
The Cadillac Lyriq and Celestiq are in the queue for production. We know the Celestiq is virtually hand-built with an estimated sticker price of $300,000. But the Lyriq is expected to be a moneymaker, translating to a relatively high-volume EV.
Cadillac has been building the Lyriq for over a year. In that time, only 1,000 have gone to buyers. If that EV takes the same snail’s pace as the Hummer, there’s no way GM can accomplish its big electric goals.
Why are some Hummer EVs under a sales freeze?
And keep in mind that an electric Chevy Silverado and mainstream GMC EV truck are supposed to go on sale by 2025. They’re based on the Hummer. That means we could see electric truck bottlenecks aplenty.
Back to the Hummer. The other troubling news out of the WSJ is that many are sitting at dealerships under a sales freeze. Since October, GM has been addressing water leaks inside battery packs. GMC says the slow roll of production Hummers will magically hit speed in the second half of this year.
We hope so, because GM is banking on EVs for all future products. The auto giant is spending billions on development, new factories, and research into the next phase of electrification beyond lithium-ion batteries — not to mention its reputation.
