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The Hummer is coming back as a 1,000-horsepower electric truck

The Hummer is coming back as a 1,000-horsepower electric truck

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Ahead of a Super Bowl ad

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Image: GMC

General Motors has confirmed it’s resurrecting the Hummer nameplate for a new all-electric truck that will have 1,000 horsepower on offer and go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in three seconds, according to new teaser images and videos released today. The new electric Hummer truck will break cover during a Super Bowl ad this coming Sunday, and will be treated to a full reveal on May 20th. It’s due out in late 2021.

The resurrected Hummer will be made and sold under the GMC brand at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck factory, which the automaker is pumping $2.2 billion into as it gears up to mass-produce electric vehicles.

It’s alive!

GM is pulling this Frankenstein move a decade after it retired the Hummer in 2010. At the time, the boxy behemoth had become a symbol for pre-financial crisis excess. But once the global recession hit, and fuel prices stared to rise, Hummer sales dropped through the floor and the vehicle was killed off.

SUVs and pickup trucks have increasingly dominated the US market in the decade since the Hummer was discontinued, despite a corresponding uptick in emissions and pedestrian deaths. A number of other automakers have tried this same trick of leaning hard on nostalgia and well-known nameplates to generate excitement and interest in their electric vehicles, with the Ford Mustang Mach-E being the most obvious example. With those factors in mind, it’s not surprising at all that GM is taking a chance on resurrecting the Hummer.

While there are plenty of electric SUVs already on the road, the electric truck market is still wide open. That won’t be the case for long. Ford is working on an all-electric F-150 that it promises will be just as capable a truck as people have come to expect from its most popular nameplate, and Tesla’s Cybertruck will serve as an option for more contrarian customers. A number of startups are entering the space, too. Most notably, Michigan’s Rivian plans to release its luxury electric pickup truck later this year. Others, like Bollinger, Karma, and Lordstown Motors, are all trying to be among the first to sell electric pickup trucks as well.