2000 Am General H1 Hummer Wagon on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GMC Hummer EV could have had the Chevrolet Avalanche's Midgate

One of the many rumors swirling around the GMC Hummer EV claimed the truck would resurrect the Midgate inaugurated by the original Chevrolet Avalanche. Although we now know there's no way to fully knock down the partition between the cab and the cargo box, the firm revealed the rumor wasn't entirely false. "There was [a Midgate] early on. We opted for the functionality of the drop glass in the back. With the package layout and things like that, it was not advantageous to pursue that one. And, the five-foot bed was kind of the industry standard in regards to price of entry in that segment," explained John Mack, the Hummer's exterior design management, during an interview with Muscle Car & Trucks. The Hummer will go on sale with a five-foot box, and it doesn't sound like a longer bed will be available, so a modern version of the Midgate would have made the model more versatile by giving users the ability to fold down the partition behind the rear seats to carry bulky items, like plywood and ATVs. It's a feature that would have inevitably made the truck more complicated to build, however, because it adds moving parts that need to be sealed. Hinges, seals, and latches in turn add weight, and complexity almost always invites high manufacturing costs. As an electric pickup built with newly-developed components, the Hummer already has enough of each. Motorists who need to carry something that's significantly longer than the cargo box aren't entirely out of luck. As Mack pointed out, the rear window drops into the partition, so owners will have the ability to haul surfboards, lumber, or anything else that's relatively long and reasonably thin by simply pushing a switch. Alternatively, the only thing limiting cargo space when the roof comes off is the sky — or, depending on where you live, bridges. Mack didn't reveal when the Midgate was dropped. GMC launched the Hummer project in April 2019, and it previously released early design sketches that show how the truck transitioned from a sketch to a prototype. As of writing, nothing suggests the Midgate will make a comeback in the near future on any member of the General Motors portfolio. It was introduced in 2001 on the first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, which went on sale in the United States for the 2002 model year. It later spread to Cadillac's luxed-up variant of the truck, the Escalade EXT, and to the short-lived GMC Envoy XUV.

These were our favorite cars of 2022

Favorite cars is different than best cars. The idea of "best" can speak to value and overall competitiveness in a given vehicle segment. There's lots of objectivity involved and to do a "best" list right, one really must be very thorough and as scientific as possible. This is not that list. This is about our favorites, so objectivity be damned. If we liked a Challenger Hellcat because it made loud noises or a Honda Odyssey because it made for a particularly special family vacation, fair game. These were the cars that most spoke to our collection of editors and the ones that stayed in our minds and hung in our hearts long after they left our driveway. — Senior Editor James Riswick 2022 GMC Hummer EV Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: I didn't particularly expect to like the new Hummer. I wasn't a fan of the Hummer H2 or H3, so I wasn't automatically enthusiastic about this electric reboot. Fast EVs aren't hard to come by — and, in fact, may be too easy to come by — so its performance specs weren't enough to win me over. Despite videos to the contrary, pickups aren't my favorite vehicular format. And its excessive size and weight turned me off ... until I finally got behind the wheel.  This thing is wildly entertaining to drive. Watts to Freedom launch control is a neat party trick, sure, but the novelty wears off quickly. The novelty of Crab Walk, however, has staying power. The rear-wheel steering makes this behemoth feel much smaller than it is — the maneuverability is incredible, and useful. The air suspension provides tons of clearance, including a ridiculously high-riding Extract mode. I can't wait for lesser versions of the Hummer to make their way to market. Give me less power (for less money), but keep the off-road tricks onboard, and I'll be a happy camper. Senior Editor, Consumer, Jeremy Korzeniewski: If I could afford to put one of these in my driveway, I would. Sadly, I can't, so I won't (What's that, Janet? I got the lyric wrong?). Still, I love the dumb thing. Thankfully, I have another choice down below. 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Associate Editor Byron Hurd: Yeah, duh, Porsches are good. But there's good, and then there's GT3. This is the feeling every performance-oriented RWD tuner is trying to replicate. This is hard, precise, surgical and immensely satisfying. To begin to explore this car on a public road is by itself an admission that you believe yourself to be above the rules as they apply to normal drivers.

2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 pickups ready to go to customers

It's official: Two years after GM announced the electric GMC Hummer pickup, the first couple dozen units have left the line at the GM Factory Zero Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, according to GM president Mark Reuss. In an interview with CNBC to celebrate the milestone, Reuss said 17 Hummer EVs are ready for delivery to customers. This makes the Hummer the first of GM's new Ultium-based EVs to leave the factory, and the second electric pickup on the market after the Rivian R1T. The first 1,200 Hummer EVs made will be Edition 1 models, all of which are Interstellar White outside with Lunar Horizon interiors and bronze badging. Each of the $112,595 pickups is powered by three Ultium motors producing a GM-estimated 1,000 horsepower and 11,500 pound-feet of torque, loaded with features like height-adjusting adaptive suspension, skid rails and rock sliders, 35-inch tires, the diagonal-driving CrabWalk, the launch control system Watts to Freedom that unlocks a three-second sprint to 60 miles per hour, and Super Cruise. Range is a GM-estimated 329 miles when the 200-kWh battery is fully charged. As these filter out to eager owners, GM is prepping the next four phases of the Hummer rollout. About a year from now, in autumn of 2022, Factory Zero will begin production of the first widely available Hummer, the EV3X pickup that starts at $99,995 before destination. Three Ultium motors will provide an estimated 800 horsepower and 9,500 pound-feet of torque to a range estimated beyond 300 miles. Spring of 2023 is expected to deliver the Hummer EV2X pickup at an MSRP of $89,995, utilizing two motors producing a total 625 hp and 7,400 lb-ft over a range also estimated to go beyond 300 miles. Around the same time, the first units of the $105,595 Hummer SUV Edition 1 are planned to head down lines at Factory Zero. Finally, in the spring of 2024, the entry-level $79,995 Hummer EV2 pickup and its two-motor powertrain should arrive, making the same output as the EV2X, but only good for a range of around 250 miles. That won't be all we see from Factory Zero, either. GM invested $2.2 billion in the Detroit-Hamtramck plant that once built bread-and-butter GM fare like the Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse, and Oldsmobile Toronado in order to turn the facility into its first EV base of manufacturing operations for Ultium products. The battery-electric Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups will be built there, as will the Cruise Origin robotaxi.