A lot of folks are giddy over the new all-electric GMC Hummer. The larger-than-life brand has risen from the grave, transforming itself from one of General Motors’ most fuel-hungry vehicles of the 21st century into a lean, mean, battery-packin’ machine. This time around, the General made sure to give it a boat-load of new features, but perhaps the coolest one of the bunch is the truck’s all-wheel-steering, dubbed Crab Walk.
A keen-eyed Instagrammer happened to spot one of these electric off-roaders doing what it does best near the Poison Spider Trail around Moab, Utah, and his video was quickly shared by others across social media. And while covered in dirt and quite exposed without its plastic trimmings, the driver of the Hummer used the feature in broad daylight like it was no biggie.
The 1,000-hp Hummer can be seen clad with dirt and carrying two masked passengers down a stretch of road. The front of the truck has black shielding covering the fascia and light bar, and two rather large amber side markers—much larger than previously seen—are present on either side of the camouflaged headlamps. This being a test mule, there are also other coverings and parts added/missing.
The cool part of the video doesn’t actually happen until near the end, when the driver of the Hummer begins to turn the truck’s front wheels to the left—and just like the engineers at GM intended—the rears followed, initiating a short Crab Walk down the road.
According to GM, the intended use of Crab Walk is to move diagonally around obstacles by turning the rear wheels in the same direction as the front. At low speeds, the Hummer can angle the rear up to 10 degrees, allowing for some pretty nifty moves around objects where the behemoth of a truck would otherwise have some limited mobility.
Now, we’re fairly certain that the truck didn’t need to use Crab Walk in this scenario; after all, it seems like a pretty open road with nothing obstructing the Hummer’s path. Plus, the automaker’s current stance is that Crab Walk’s intended use is off-road.
For what it’s worth, it makes a cool party trick in traffic as long as you have the space necessary. Plus, when real-world owners eventually drop upwards of $112,595, they’re going to want to flex as much as possible.
There’s a little bit more to watch in the full video, and you can use it to pick apart just how different this mule happens to look compared to the photos we’ve seen of the supertruck so far.
The first Hummer EV Edition 1 units are said to be hitting dealer lots beginning this fall, so perhaps some more Hummer hijinks aren’t far off.
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