The GMC Hummer EV is controversial on account of its size and weight, but that hasn’t stunted its popularity. General Motors has received more than 90,000 reservations for the truck, which is great, though production is still at a crawl due to various supply constraints. To address this, the automaker has decided to close its books for every trim until it can start making the units it’s obliged to.
That means everything from the flagship Edition 1 pickup—the only model produced so far—to the lower trims and the SUV are now unavailable to reserve. For the nearly 100,000 people who already have deposits down, nothing has really changed. They’ll just be waiting a while to get their vehicles.
GMC spokesperson Mikhael Farah told the Detroit Free Press that reservations are split about 50-50 between the SUV and the pickup. He also noted that those who would like a Hummer EV can still be a “hand-raiser” and receive updates about the truck and its availability. They cannot, however, place a $100 refundable deposit on a Hummer until the banks re-open at an unspecified date down the road.
In early July, GMC built roughly a dozen Hummer EVs daily. At that rate, the company would’ve spent 17 years clearing the backlog, which stood at just 77,000 then. Battery cell supply was believed to be the primary bottleneck, a situation which has definitely improved as GM just opened its first American battery cell factory in Ohio with LG Chem. Two more American plants will be operational within a few years as well, but before they get rolling, things look a little constrained.
A Twitter user shared a photo with us, embedded below, ofG dozens of Hummer EVs sitting in a Flint, Michigan parking lot. It reminds us of the thousands of trucks Ford is stashing away, unfinished due to various supply shortages.
In some ways, the Hummer EV’s limited production run has helped GM keep everything under control. The truck has had one recall due to an issue with leaky roofs, but because it affected just 10 vehicles, the manufacturer was able to address the situation swiftly. There have been a few other minor issues affecting its electronics, though it seems like changes to the truck to address these problems have been rolled out quickly.
The small number of vehicles has also meant the trucks are flipped for incredible sums. The Edition 1 pickup starts at $110,295, and they’ve been auctioned for as much as $275,000.
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