The GMC Hummer EV Hopes You'll Take Your Top Off
The new all-electric Hummer EV will have a removable roof, GMC has confirmed today, as it continues to tease the 1,000 horsepower reboot. Set to be revealed – a little later than GMC intended – sometime in 2020, the new Hummer does away with the gas-guzzling engines of its predecessors, replacing them with an electric drivetrain that cuts emissions not performance.
In fact, the GMC Hummer EV will be positively lavish when it comes to grunt. In addition to all that horsepower, GMC is promising a 0-60 mph time of 3 seconds, not to mention monumental levels of torque.
It'll be wrapped up in a beefy body that befits the Hummer nameplate (and which, on the nose at least, will be illuminated too). The last teaser GMC gave us hinted at removable roof panels, or alternatively a glass roof. Now, we know exactly what the Hummer EV will have.
There'll be four panels to the SUV's roof, GMC has confirmed, which can be individually taken out. The front T-bar will also be removable, so that the entire space above the driver and passenger is left open.
The Hummer EV won't be the first truck to have such a system, of course. Jeep's Wrangler and Gladiator models, for example, offer removable roof panels of their own; you can even take off the doors and hinge down the front windshield if you're feeling brave (and have goggles to hand as well as some confidence in the weather report). Of course neither of those are available as an all-electric car, though Jeep is planning specially-badged 4xe electrified versions of some cars in its range.
This steady drip of Hummer EV features wasn't how General Motors initially wanted to unveil the new truck. In fact, today was meant to be the day that we'd see it in its entirety, an event GMC had to take off the table because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead it will get a debut – possibly an all-digital one, though that's undecided – later in 2020.
GM insists that, reveal aside, everything is on track with the SUV, and indeed for its Cadillac Lyriq cousin. Like the Hummer, the new Cadillac crossover was intended to be unveiled this quarter, but coronavirus pulled the rug out from under that roadmap. Nonetheless the commercial launch for the Hummer EV is still expected in the fall of 2021, and GM says that far from derailing that, the current pandemic could actually see it pulling forward at least one new EV launch that's now ahead of schedule.