How’s this for a humdinger: Late Friday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors will bring back the iconic Hummer name for a new electric pickup truck. It’s quite the rebranding for a vehicle that was once seen as a middle finger pointed squarely at environmental concerns, though not an altogether surprising one with the electric truck market suddenly flush with entries.
Unlike the gaudy Hummer H2 and H3 SUVs, this fully electric Hummer will be a pickup truck described by the Journal as “rugged, jeep-like… [and] for off-road enthusiasts.” It will start production in 2021 at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, which has been the speculated home of several future GM electric trucks since the company’s plans for a $3 billion investment in the facility were revealed last October. At the time, a reborn Hummer was rumored to be one of them.
What’s more, the electric Hummer pickup will be officially announced next month in a splashy Super Bowl commercial and larger ad campaign involving NBA star LeBron James. But those hoping for a full-on brand revival will have to wait—we’re talking about a single vehicle housed with the luxurious confines of the GMC nameplate, and the Journal’s sources call it a “small-volume” endeavor.
Still, we know GM wants to bring a number of electric cars and trucks to market in the next five years, so the first E-Hummer’s success could herald a larger lineup, something that’s been rumored before. GM declined to comment to The Drive on any of these details.
It’s too early to start guessing about specs, since we still don’t know anything about the new BT1 platform the company’s electric trucks and SUVs will use. As for why GMC will be housing Hummer, it became GM’s de facto fancy truck brand when Hummer died in 2010, and it’s been a money printer for the General as pickup sales have boomed recently.