Rivian Owner Tests $100K Hummer EV, Calls It “Annoying Huge” With “Bad Sight Lines”

Roux_My_Burgundy owns a Gen 1 Rivian R1T and a Gen 2 R1S. He's not an EV hater. He's not a Tesla fanboy. He's just a guy who likes electric trucks and wanted to see if the Hummer EV could replace his Rivian. He rented one for a week in Southern California. His verdict? "Didn't hate it but didn't love it."

That's the most generous thing you can say about the Hummer EV. It's not terrible. It's not great. It's a 9,000-pound monument to GM's identity crisis, electrified. Industry experts note that the 2024 GMC HUMMER EV intends to be the big dog in the rapidly growing overlanding market.

Let's start with the good, because there's less of it. The Bose sound system slaps. The frunk is genuinely spacious. Four-wheel steering is genuinely useful, though Roux_My_Burgundy didn't even try Crab Walk, which tells you how essential that party trick really is. And yes, you can pop the top off and drop the back window, which would be genuinely fun at the beach or the lake.

But that's where the fun ends.

"It's annoying huge," he wrote. "Bad sight lines. The windshield is tiny. Hard to see out of up front, sides, and back." This is a vehicle so massive that GM had to install approximately 47 sensors and cameras to compensate for the fact that you can't see anything. And those sensors? "It was constantly chirping and beeping. It was very obnoxious."

The Uber ride home in a Model Y was "so quiet and serene after being in the Hummer." Think about that. A Tesla, famously not known for luxury refinement, felt like a sanctuary after a week in GM's 100,000 electric flagship. Despite the luxury, a Cybertruck vs Hummer EV survey shows a clear preference among potential buyers.

Then there's Super Cruise, GM's much-hyped hands-free driving system. Roux_My_Burgundy found it "just behind Gen2 hands-free. Not bad, but too aggressive and gets itself into bad spots. You have to intervene too much." Several times, it would change lanes to pass a slow driver, only to find the other lane had someone even slower. Or it would drift away from the exit he needed. "Too much back and forth."

GMC Hummer EV: Extreme Performance and Utility

The Hummer EV is a heavy-duty electric vehicle available in both pickup and SUV body styles. It focuses on high-output performance figures and specialized off-road hardware rather than efficiency.

• Advertising
  
  
  

  The Four-Wheel Steer system includes "CrabWalk," which allows the rear wheels to turn at the same angle as the front wheels to move the vehicle diagonally. A 2026 "King Crab" update further increases the steering angle for even tighter turn circles.

• Its tri-motor powertrain generates up to 1,000 horsepower and a claimed 11,500 lb-ft of wheel torque. The 800-volt electrical architecture supports 350 kW DC fast charging, which can add approximately 100 miles of range in 10 minutes.

• The "Infinity Roof" consists of four removable transparent sky panels that can be stored in the front trunk. This design allows for an open-top driving experience while maintaining a structural roll cage for safety. 

• "Extract Mode" utilizes the air suspension to lift the chassis an additional six inches to clear large obstacles or water crossings. "Watts to Freedom" acts as a launch control system, lowering the vehicle and prepping the battery for maximum acceleration.

The comment section quickly devolved into the usual EV tribal warfare. "Hummers are, and always have been, idiotic things that shouldn't exist," wrote one critic. "The pinnacle of masculinity support vehicles and an overt symptom of a society that sees excess and waste as status. Electrifying it doesn't fix that." Another piled on: "They're both deliberately wasteful monuments to moronic ego. The Hummer is, however, significantly heavier than the Cybertruck. In raw wastefulness terms, it wins."

But here's the thing: they're not wrong. The Hummer EV is objectively ridiculous. It's heavier than some commercial trucks. It uses enough batteries for three normal EVs. It costs six figures. And for what? So you can feel like you're driving a tank to Trader Joe's? Many enthusiasts were excited when GMC and Hummer teamed up for a documentary detailing the vehicle's complex development.

Roux_My_Burgundy nailed the fundamental problem: "Lost identity. Felt like the product didn't know if it was an EV or an ICE vehicle." The Hummer EV has fake engine sounds. It has aggressive regen braking that feels like downshifting. It has a "Watts to Freedom" launch mode that briefly made him feel like he was "opening the throttle on a boat" as the front end raised up "comically high."

This is GM's idea of an electric future: take everything stupid about the old Hummer, add batteries, and charge twice as much. However, the 2022 GMC Hummer EV could face a potential clone from competitors in the Chinese market.

The defenders showed up, of course. "Spend 6 months (so far) with a Hummer EV: It's big and stupid and fun," wrote one owner. Another praised Super Cruise as "competent, and communicative" and "way better than the sad excuse that is BlueCruise." But even the defenders couldn't deny the fundamental absurdity of the thing.

The Hummer EV isn't a bad truck. It's smooth at speed, takes bumps well, and has genuinely impressive off-road capability. But it's solving a problem that doesn't exist. Who needs a 9,000-pound electric supertruck? Who asked for this?

Roux_My_Burgundy put it best: "It would make a great beach or lake vehicle but not a daily." That's a 100,000 toy for weekend adventures. For that money, you could buy a used Rivian for daily duty and a used Wrangler for the beach, and still have cash left over.

But that's not the point, is it? The Hummer EV isn't about rational transportation decisions. It's about making a statement. The statement is: "I have too much money and not enough sense."

Image Sources: GMC Media Center 

About The Author

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, covering sports cars, luxury vehicles, and performance culture. His reporting focuses on explaining the engineering, design philosophy, and real-world ownership experience behind modern vehicles.

Noah has been immersed in the automotive world since his early teens, attending industry events and following the enthusiast communities that shape how cars are built and driven today. His work blends industry insight with enthusiastic storytelling, helping readers understand not just what a car is, but why it matters.

Noah is also a member of the Southeast Automotive Media Association (SAMA), a professional organization for automotive journalists and industry media in the Southeast. 

His coverage regularly explores sports cars, luxury vehicles, and performance-driven segments of the automotive industry, including the evolving culture surrounding Formula Drift and enthusiast builds.

Read more of Noah's work on his author profile page.

You can also follow Noah here:

• X (Twitter)
• LinkedIn