GM has started producing the Hummer EV SUV

General Motors has begun production of the Hummer EV SUV at its Factory Zero in Michigan, according to Nicole Schmitz, a company spokeswoman. Detroit Press announced Monday that customers could begin receiving their orders by the end of Q1. This is consistent with GM’s FAQ, which states that the SUV will be available in “early 2023.”

I won’t blame anyone who’s thinking “wait, haven’t they been making these for a while,” because GM started shipping the truck version of the Hummer EV, which features a five-foot-long bed, in December 2021. In October 2022 .the company announced it had built 782 of the vehicles in 2022 and said it has about 90,000 reservations for both the truck and SUV versions. Last summer, The Wall Street Journal reported that GM only makes about 12 Hummer EVs per day.

“I am concerned about the increased risk of serious injury and death for all road users due to the greater unladen weight and increasing size, power and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” she said, before specifically calling out 10,000 per Hummer-plus pounds of gross vehicle weight. (She also mentioned how electrified vehicles from Ford, Volvo and Toyota are significantly heavier than their gas counterparts.)

This makes it slightly ironic that GM issued a press release about how it is donating the proceeds from the auction of the first production Hummer SUV to a charity called Tread Lightly, which aims to “balance the needs of people who enjoy vacationing on open, with the need to maintain healthy ecosystems and thriving wildlife populations across the country.” While I’m definitely happy to hear that the non-profit will be getting $500,000, I don’t think anyone will be able to tread lightly in a Hummer EV SUV.