By no measure do the new 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup and the 2022 Rivian R1T feel like they have anything in common. The Rivian is a quiet, sophisticated, and reserved electric pickup. Introverted, even. The Hummer EV is a huge, brash, all-you-can-eat buffet of themes and features. Yet the Rivian and the Hummer—the first and second electric pickups to hit the market—have more in common than you’d think.
Ignoring their combined seven motors, 333 kWh of battery storage, and 1,835 horsepower, the GMC and Rivian are among the ultimate on- and off-road do-it-all pickups to ever hit the streets. They are, as it turns out, two sides of the same coin. It’s time to determine which one is the better pickup.
Where the Ford F-150 Lightning (page 28) is designed to be a work truck first, the Hummer EV Edition 1 and Rivian R1T Launch Edition both cater to the “lifestyle” crowd—each is happy to work, but they’re far more likely to whisk well-heeled owners away on weekend adventures. Rivian aims to “electrify the outdoors,” whereas GMC wants the Hummer to be considered the “world’s first all-electric supertruck,” which, by the look of it, basically means a plus-sized electric Ram 1500 TRX fighter.
THE HUMMER FEATURES A SLEW OF OFF-ROAD TECHNOLOGY. THE PARTY PIECE IS UNQUESTIONABLY ITS FOUR-WHEEL STEERING.
GMC and Rivian take similar approaches in building electric off-roaders. Neither design is what we’d call traditional, but the Hummer’s ought to be more familiar to the average truck buyer. Sized somewhere between a full-size and a heavy-duty pickup, it has a massive frunk, a convertible cab, a 5-foot bed, and a massive 200-kWh battery pack—among the largest packs yet fitted to an electric vehicle. Like a Tesla Model S Plaid, power comes courtesy of three permanent-magnet motors, two in back and one in front. Combined output is a whopping 1,000 hp and 1,200 lb-ft of torque—enough to make both the most ardent environmentalist and loudest climate change denier smile. The all-wheel-drive setup features torque vectoring and a “virtual locker” in back and an old-school mechanical locking
