A $42,000 Hummer EV Rebate? Drivers Say It’s Still Not Enough
You see a headline about a $42,000 rebate on a new GMC Hummer EV and you think, “Wow, that’s the deal of a century.” That’s more than the total cost of a brand-new Ford Maverick. It’s a discount so massive it feels like a typo. But when this news hit the car enthusiast corners of the internet, the reaction wasn't a mad dash to the nearest dealership. It was a collective, skeptical eyebrow raise.
Instead of sparking a buying frenzy, the huge discount kicked off a passionate debate about the Hummer EV’s price, practicality, and its very reason for existing. The consensus? For many, even a $42,000 price cut isn’t enough to make this electric behemoth make sense.
The Sticker Shock That Won’t Subside
Let’s get the numbers out of the way. This rebate drops the price of certain models from an eye-watering $142,000 down to just under $100,000. While that’s a significant drop, many drivers were quick to point out that it’s still… well, a hundred grand. For a truck.
“Sounds like what it should have cost to begin with.”
It’s a feeling that GM grossly overestimated the power of the Hummer brand name, slapping on a price tag that was detached from reality. During the post-COVID spending spree, dealers were getting wild markups, with one person recalling a local dealership listing the first one they got for a mind-boggling $325,000. Those days are clearly over.
For many, even at $99,780, it’s a tough sell. As one commenter bluntly put it, “Take another $50k off and we’ll talk.” The sheer absurdity of the rebate amount became a running joke, with one person noting the discount alone was more than they paid for their truck, their other truck, and their station wagon combined.
The Biggest Problem? It’s Bigger on the Outside
If you think the price is the only issue, you haven’t heard about the interior. The original Hummers were often criticized for being like a fortress—massive on the outside, but with gun-slit windows and a cramped cabin. It seems some things never change.
A new dad with a one-year-old and a two-year-old shared his experience. He was excited about the Hummer EV’s size, thinking it would be perfect for his growing family. He really, really wanted to buy it. Then he test-drove it. He realized there was “no space for anything useful.” He ended up buying a Lexus LX 570, a vehicle that’s smaller on the outside but, according to him, offers vastly more usable interior space. He summed up the Hummer’s cabin capacity as being on par with a BMW X5—a vehicle in a completely different size class.
This sentiment was everywhere. People expected the new Hummer to have an interior you could practically live in, like the cavernous H2 of the 2000s. Instead, they found a vehicle with two rows and a surprisingly tiny-feeling cabin. It’s a massive packaging failure in an era where interior volume is a key selling point for SUVs.
The Great SUV Debate: How Much Space Do We Really Need?
The Hummer’s baffling size-to-space ratio naturally sparked the bigger, more philosophical question: Why are North Americans so obsessed with gigantic SUVs? One commenter, a dad of two, mentioned his Hyundai Ioniq 5 is all the room he could ever need. Others chimed in, stating their family of five fits just fine in a Toyota Camry, or that a simple Volkswagen Golf works for their daily needs.
Of course, not everyone agreed. Some defended the desire for more room, arguing that people just like to have space for comfort, and that’s a valid choice. But the sheer scale of the Hummer EV seems to push that logic to its limit. It’s so wide that it barely fits in standard parking spaces, and its 9,000-pound curb weight brings its own set of problems.
Real-World Headaches of a 9,000-Pound EV
Owning a vehicle this heavy and complex isn't all celebrity-style entrances and crab-walking tricks. That immense weight, for instance, is absolutely brutal on tires. One driver mentioned passing a Hummer EV on the road and noticing its tires were already completely worn out on the edges. With specialty tires costing a small fortune, that’s a running cost many people don’t consider.
The Jump-Start Fiasco
Then there are the electrical gremlins. In one of the most telling anecdotes, a user shared a story about having to jump-start his friend's brand-new Hummer EV with his diesel truck. Apparently, a parasitic drain killed the small 12-volt battery that’s needed to activate the main high-voltage system. The drain was so bad that a smaller vehicle couldn't supply enough juice to get it going. Imagine explaining that to a tow truck driver.
A Truck Without a Tribe
So, who is the Hummer EV for? That seems to be the million-dollar—or rather, the hundred-thousand-dollar—question. It’s in a strange no-man’s-land in the current market.
Competitive Cross-Shopping
If you want a high-end luxury EV for over $100k, you’re probably looking at a Porsche Taycan, a Mercedes EQS, or a Lucid Air. If you want a big, brawny, statement-making truck, you might go for a fully-loaded Escalade, a Ford F-150 Raptor, or a Ram TRX. If you want an extravagant, look-at-me electric truck, the Rivian R1T and Tesla Cybertruck seem to be capturing most of that attention.
The Hummer EV feels like it’s trying to be all of these things at once, and maybe succeeding at none of them. It’s an icon from a gas-guzzling era, reborn as an EV. But perhaps the people who loved the old Hummer for its rebellious, fuel-burning excess aren’t the same people shopping for a six-figure electric vehicle today.
Conclusion: An Icon's Awkward Comeback
At the end of the day, a $42,000 rebate feels less like a generous offer and more like a desperate market correction. It’s an admission that the Hummer EV was simply priced far too high from the start. But the discount doesn't fix the fundamental issues: a cramped interior, questionable practicality, and an identity crisis.
The Hummer is an icon, no doubt. But its comeback as an EV might go down as a classic case of a brand misreading the room. For now, the online community has spoken, and their message is clear: even with a discount that could buy you a whole other car, the Hummer EV just isn’t it.