GMC Hummer EV receives surprising number of pre-orders, and GM is looking to increase production

GM has been cryptic about its plan for the first year of production of the GMC Hummer EV electric pickup truck that it claims was sold out in minutes.

Now we have a better idea of how many pre-orders it received, and it is higher than we thought.

In October, GM officially launched its GMC Hummer EV, an all-electric “supertruck” with up to 350 miles of range and a starting price of $80,000.

The vehicle impressed many with a ton of features and decent range for an electric vehicle of this size.

GM plans to launch the electric pickup truck next year, which is quick, but the automaker will start slow with the higher-end version of the truck, and the base version is not expected until 2024.

For the first year of production in 2021-2022, GM is planning to sell a more expensive and fully-equipped “Edition 1,” which the automaker said was sold out in 10 minutes after the launch.

They wouldn’t confirm how many “Edition 1” Hummer EVs they made available to order, which led us to believe that they didn’t plan to make many electric pickup trucks.

Now, we have a better idea of the production capacity that they are planning, as some information is leaking from a dealer meeting this week.

Detroit Free Press reported on the meeting during which GMC told dealers that it had 10,000 pre-orders for the Hummer EV Edition 1 electric pickup trucks:

The dealers are on board in part because the Hummer Edition 1 already has 10,000 preorders. Also, GMC promises to have more EVs in the lineup beyond the Hummer pickup, including a Hummer SUV version that GM will officially reveal early next year and an all-electric Sierra pickup “soon.”

That could mean that GM could produce as many as 10,000 Hummer EVs during the first year of production.

However, the number of actual production could be lower after accounting for reservation holders who will not go through with their orders.

One dealer who attended the meeting said that GM is considering increasing production:

“The Hummer Edition 1 sold out in 10 minutes and they said they had enough orders for it to fulfill their first year of production currently, but they are evaluating if they can build more.”

The Hummer Edition 1 is going to start at $112,595 and go into production in late 2021.

GM was trying to convince GMC dealers to sell the new Hummer EV, and apparently, half of the 1,900 GMC dealers in the US have already agreed to sell the vehicle, which requires deploying a charging station and investing in training.