By Dan Gearino, Inside Clean Energy

The Hummer brand once stood out as a symbol of gross excess. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a rabid fan of the vehicle, which looked like one of his movies in four-wheel form—and not one of the good movies, one that you were ashamed to admit you had seen three times. The flagship H1 went on sale to the general public in 1992. It weighed about four tons and had fuel economy of about 10 mpg—so bad you could imagine the fumes causing birds to fall out of the sky. Audacity was the point with Hummer, and that is still the case. This week, General Motors revealed the first vehicle in a revival of the brand, a truck that is big, powerful and, maybe most audacious, all-electric.

The new Hummer made its debut Wednesday with the release of a five-minute film, in which the environmental benefits of the EV are secondary to its raw power. “Introducing the world’s first all-electric supertruck, the revolutionary GMC Hummer EV, with no limits, no emissions and no equals,” the film’s narrator says over the propulsive beat of a  Led Zeppelin cover. “It will leave everything you thought possible in a cloud of dust.” The vehicle is scheduled to go on sale in late 2021, with a price tag of $112,595 and a battery range of 350 miles. It is the first of what will be a line of Hummer EVs. General Motors is positioning the Hummer as a challenger to Tesla’s Cybertruck, which also is scheduled to go on sale in late 2021. So far, Tesla has dominated the EV market, and the company’s rivals are figuring out how to catch up, right as projections have that market soaring. For GM, a crucial part of the strategy is turning its existing strength in gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs into success in selling electric models in those categories. Care to share? Use icons below to show the post on social media Jon Krosnick, an expert in public opinion research who teaches at Stanford University, said it is remarkable that automakers are investing heavily in electric trucks, because there is little evidence that truck buyers are clamoring for electric options. EVs, including all-electric and gas-electric hybrids, accounted for about 2 percent of new car and truck sales last year in the United States.  “I see a kind of boldness on the part for the industry to say, ‘We’re not going to wait for consumers to demand this,’” he said. “‘We’re going to create the opportunities for them before the demand is there, because it’s the right thing to do.’” Krosnick said GM is sending a message with the Hummer that a truck “dripping with machismo” can also be electric. Few buyers will be able to afford the new Hummer, but marketing it could be an important part of challenging the idea that EVs are small sedans driven mostly by people who live on the coasts. Notice I’m not talking about the new Hummer as environmentally friendly. Gigantic vehicles, even electric ones, have substantial lifecycle emissions associated with the materials that go into them, and they contribute to the often-harmful perception that our cities need wide roads. So, if you want to help the planet, don’t drive at all, or drive a smaller EV like a Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model 3. And yes, I realize that the previous sentence completely misses the point of what GM is trying to do. Top Photo Credit: GM; Bottom Photo Credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images Don’t miss information like this. Click to receive free EP Blog updates