GMC and Chevy have built EVs that don’t just meet expectations, they violate them in broad daylight. It feels eerily similar to that mysterious “gentlemen’s agreement” from the heyday of JDM performance, when Toyota Supras, RX-7s, and Skyline GT-Rs quietly handed out 300+ horsepower while swearing they only made 276. Only now, the battlefield isn’t the expressway or the touge. It’s the boat ramp, and the contenders are massive slabs of American iron running on silent currents.
8,000 lb Boat Haul & 100-Mile Journey Without Charging
And just like in the old days, the truth is coming from owners, tinkerers, and everyday drivers who push these machines far beyond the fine print. One of them is Brandon Jenkins, who dropped a brutally honest and incredibly useful breakdown of his Hummer EV’s towing performance into the GMC Hummer EV Group on Facebook. His words weren’t sugarcoated, and they weren’t wrapped in tech jargon. They were direct, first-hand, and straight off the ramp,
"I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how capable the Hummer EV would be for towing a boat. There seems to be a lot of people who pull boats, but very little info about backing down the boat ramp and entering/exiting the water.
I made my vehicle purchase without this info because my dealer didn’t know anyone doing this, and my search in forums left me with more questions than answers. This post is meant to help the next guy/gal who has questions about the boat towing experience. Full transparency, I have a 2025 2x SUV with a 10K tow rating.
-My range towing is much better than I was expecting. I tow about 100 miles and usually start with 80% battery and end with 30% (no charging required). That is a combination of highway (70-75mph max) and stop-and-go neighborhood street driving.
-Due to the Hummer’s ride height, the electrical components are always out of the water when backing in.
-The Hummer and boat combined weight is approximately 18K pounds. The Hummer backs down the boat ramp with ease, and the combination of regen braking and standard brakes is more than sufficient.
-Pulling the 8K-lb boat out of the water is a breeze. No slippage, which sometimes occurs when I pull with my Yukon.
-The owner's manual has a section on water fording. In the tow mode setting, the Hummer is capable of driving in 26” of water. The manual recommends not driving in water higher than the top of the gravel guards. For a normal boat ramp experience, I don’t see the need to get anywhere close to that deep in the water. (See owner’s manual screenshot)."
This isn’t just one guy tooting his horn, this is a peer-reviewed performance evaluation, with comment-section corroboration. Jenkins' experience echoes a larger, under-the-radar truth about GM’s EV trucks… they’re sandbagging.
Hummer EV Towing Specs: Up to 12,000 lb Capacity
- The 2025 GMC Hummer EV Pickup has a maximum towing capacity of up to 12,000 pounds when equipped with the 20-module battery and two-motor configuration. This impressive capability allows it to handle substantial loads, making it suitable for hauling heavy trailers or equipment.
- The Hummer EV is equipped with GMC's ProGrade™ Trailering System, which includes features like Hitch Guidance with Hitch View, an in-vehicle Trailering App, and up to 17 available camera views. These technologies assist drivers in aligning and managing trailers with greater ease and confidence.
- With its Air Ride Adaptive Suspension, the Hummer EV can adjust its ride height to accommodate different towing scenarios. This feature enhances stability and control,
The 2x is officially rated to tow up to 10,000 lbs (Calvin Sharp swears it’s actually 12,000), and the 3x is rated lower, just 9,000 lbs, despite having more power. This has shades of the GT-R again, understate the numbers, let the engineering speak for itself.
Of course, someone in the thread questioned it.
“Didn’t think the Hummer could tow 10k,”
Said one commenter. Calvin answered fast and firm:
“The 2x can tow 12k... I’ve found it’s capable of way more.”
Then Shawn A. Sullivan swooped in with a mic drop:
“The 3x will pull a Sherman tank if necessary and is fully capable. Recommend after warranty though…”
That last line is the giveaway, warranty-safe numbers for the government, real numbers for the road.
Still, the Hummer EV isn’t bulletproof. Calvin noted that shallow ramps can throw a wrench in the works, tripping system alerts until the vehicle clears the water.
“Extract mode doesn’t help cause of the angle the trailer gets,”
He added. Jenkins replied,
“I try to steer clear of the shallow ramps,”
But Calvin got the last word,
“Sadly, that’s not always in our control.”
Real owners, real problems, real solutions. None of this would fit on a spec sheet, and that’s exactly the point.
Jenkins's towing adventure is significant because it challenges one of the biggest lingering EV stigmas: towing range. EV skeptics are fond of quoting range numbers under load, often exaggerated into doomsday scenarios. But Jenkins managed 100 miles of towing with no mid-journey charging, pulling 8,000 pounds while the Hummer itself weighs that much. Let that sink in. It’s not a fantasy scenario. It’s documented, repeatable performance in mixed conditions. That’s a turning point. That’s usable.
Hummer EV Performance & Dimensions: 1,000 HP, 11,500 lb-ft Torque & Advanced Off-Road Tech
- The 2025 GMC Hummer EV Pickup delivers up to 1,000 horsepower and 11,500 lb-ft of torque, enabling rapid acceleration and robust performance. The SUV variant offers up to 830 horsepower and the same torque, ensuring formidable capability across both models.
- The Hummer EV Pickup measures approximately 216.8 inches in length, 86.7 inches in width, and 79.1 inches in height, with a wheelbase of 135.6 inches. The SUV variant is slightly more compact, with a length of 196.8 inches, a width of 86.5 inches, and has eight ranging from 77.8 to 83.6 inches, and a wheelbase of 126.7 inches.
- Equipped with features like Extract Mode, which lifts the suspension by approximately 6 inches, and 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory tires, the Hummer EV is designed to tackle challenging terrains. Its adaptive air suspension and four-wheel steering enhance maneuverability and comfort, both on and off the road.
There's something deeper happening here, and it’s easy to miss unless you’re paying close attention: GM’s two-headed EV lineup. GMC’s thunderous Hummer and Chevy’s more discreet Silverado EV are starting to look like a coordinated campaign.
Both punch well above their official specs. Both have customers who swear the numbers are wrong. In a good way. And both seem designed to quietly overdeliver, in a way that feels less like marketing and more like an inside joke between the engineers and the drivers.
The American Truck World
The American truck game has always been about more than just raw numbers. It’s about how a machine behaves when the work actually begins. The Hummer EV, for all its weight and flash, handles towing and fording with a kind of quiet confidence that makes spec sheets feel irrelevant. Backing down a slick ramp with 18,000 pounds in tow and pulling it out without wheel slip? That’s not just capability, it’s smart engineering in action. And when it does all this while sipping electricity and keeping its high-voltage guts dry, it stops being about EV novelty and starts being about real-world dominance.
How They Quietly Overdeliver Beyond Spec Sheets
So if you’re looking at a spec sheet, you’re only seeing the opening act. If you want the real story, the way these vehicles move, pull, climb, and swim, you have to talk to the guys like Jenkins. He didn’t just tow a boat. He proved something. He showed that modern EVs, especially the GM breed, aren’t just ready to replace trucks like the Yukon, they’re quietly outperforming them.
Image Sources: GMC Newsroom
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
