No American car nameplate has seen quite as tumultuous a time over the past quarter-century as Hummer. Loved and hated, killed and reborn, fit for the Governator and your local gym owner alike. The fall from “MTV Cribs” cool to locally despised was rather swift, but the vilification simply couldn’t last forever. Now that 2000s nostalgia is coming into its own, the controversial Hummer H2 is starting to be loved again, and GMC just cast a huge vote of confidence.
In case you live in a land where 9,000-pound supertrucks don’t roam the streets, GM revived the Hummer nameplate in 2021 with a new monument to excess. The GMC Hummer EV has a battery pack that weighs nigh-on as much as a Honda Civic, features two sets of T-tops, can crabwalk intentionally, and can sprint from zero-to-60 MPH in three seconds flat despite being the size of a small village. It’s an electric vehicle that doesn’t give two hoots about efficiency or modesty, and its architectural similarities with the Chevrolet Silverado EV draw comparisons with a Hummer from the past.
In December of 1999, GM acquired the Hummer nameplate and quickly realized that exclusively building ex-military vehicles with little service paid to ergonomics would always be a niche field. To cash in on brand equity, there needed to be a Hummer for people whose last name wasn’t Schwarzenegger. By Frankensteining bits of three-quarter-ton and half-ton trucks together underneath a blocky new body, the Hummer H2 was born. It instantly became an icon of the noughties, for better or for worse. EA Games put it in “Need For Speed: Underground 2” because it was outrageous. Environmentally motivated vandals in California set them on fire because they were outrageous. No one was neutral on the Hummer H2, but regardless of your view, when you picture one in your head, it’s likely one specific color: yellow.
Conveniently, the 2027 model year marks 25 years of the H2, so GMC is celebrating with the Hummer EV Icon | 25. Yes, that vertical bar is part of the official model name. It takes the dual-motor 2X and tri-motor 3X trims of the Hummer EV truck and SUV and clothes them in a hue fans have been craving ever since the Hummer comeback was announced. With the silly name of “Icon” (yes, really), it’s a clear throwback to the simply-named Yellow of the H2. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look the business.
Doesn’t it just take you back to a time when the H2 was shiny and new? When it graced magazine covers and video game screens and reality TV? When 24-inch wheels were mind-blowing and not just a factory option on an Escalade, and when trunk installs were less about camping gear and more about wicked loud audio equipment. It wasn’t necessarily a better time, but it was a younger time. One during which many of us were still impressionable enough to find the H2 cool.
Of course, should you wish to buy a new Hummer EV in a color other than yellow, you do still get a few benefits. For the 2027 model year, every Hummer EV comes fitted with a Tesla-style NACS port for easy Supercharger access. Four other new color choices join the palette, including broody Dark Ember, Azurite Blue, Dark Ridge, and Deep Void Matte. Capping everything off is a choice of two new 22-inch wheel designs.
While we don’t yet know how many examples of these limited-edition models GMC plans on making or what they’ll cost, spraying the Hummer EV in yellow feels like an important point in the cultural redemption of the Hummer H2. Like reality TV, it’s not the most highbrow thing on the planet, but it still gets the people going.
Top graphic image: GMC
I’ve always been surprised how many Yellow H2s you see owned by people who own crappy bars on Bar Rescue
Just paint? That’s it? No H2 style wheels? No chrome trim? what a half-assed way to celebrate.
Drivers of these vehicles get laughed at on a daily basis.
The H2 was so hated back in the day that there was a website consisting entirely of photos of people flipping them off. Haven’t seen this since for any other vehicle.
While “fuh2.com” is now defunct, it’s still viewable on the Internet Archive (probably NSFW if you work in a convent or monastery, otherwise just what you see daily on your work commute).
Have ya heard of the Cybertruck?
The internet was a better place back then.
What was the line in Better Call Saul about the yellow H2?
“It looks like a schoolbus for baby pimps!” – Nacho
I’ll go against the grain here and say that you can laugh with the H2 rather than at it, and that’s also the best way to look at this.
I went to high school with a kid who’s dad owned a couple of the downtown bars, including the “club”. Actually a fairly nice guy, but he looked the part with the spikey blond hair and gold chains (think Guy Fieri). And his daughter drove a bright yellow Hummer H2 pickup to school (remember, this is like ’14-’18, so this was a cheap used car by then). It’s such a stupid vehicle, yet it’s so perfect.
Painting the Hummer EV in bright colors only makes it a more bold statement of conspicuous consumption, but it also says that the owner can and will have a laugh. And I think we could all use a good laugh.
Fits my comment lol
I’ll flame on here. I love the Hummer EV, it’s my guilty pleasure and it would 100% be the EV I’d buy if I had that kind of money. I’d easily prefer one over a Rivian, Escalade EV, Gravity, etc. Now, would part of me be nervous that my friends, family, and coworkers would actually see me in it and judge me? You bet, but boy when they weren’t around, I’d be giddy like a little kid.
I didn’t expect to love it, but I drove one the other day and I totally get it. Something that big has no right being as quick, nimble, comfortable, and hilariously fun as it is. I’d shamelessly drive one
No, they are so obnoxiously huge. They are pure American excess but not in a good way.
Hummer EVs is super cool, but just obnoxiously huge. GM really needs to release a 7/8th scale one. Similar styling, but something that actually fits in a parking spot or garage.
Like an EV version of the H3.
Exactly.
I’ve worked on two Hummer EVs and two Cyberdumpsters.
The Hummers were absolutely bonkers and stupid, but compared to the Dumpsters, they were pedestrian, practical, and relatable. The CT is what someone buys when they have a good credit history and no common sense. The Hummer EV is what someone buys when they have a good credit history and not quite enough common sense to buy a Silverado EV or a Lightning.
The absolute best thing about the Hummer EV is the Targa Tops. Those are marvelous. More Targa Tops, please.
The Lightning is a fine and sensible truck. The Silverado EV is somehow even worse than the hummer- it weights the same (over 9k lbs!!!), has the same complete lack of practicality, and yet is not at all cool.
Robert at Aging Wheels really made a good case for it to be a decent vehicle. It’s basically the Hummer EV but more stealth. Somehow.
Yeah, that’s the problem. If you’re going to drive such a ridiculous vehicle, be loud and proud about it. Stealthy ridiculousness doesn’t work.
I believe the conclusion that we’ve both come around to is “buy a Lightning”.
Absolutely.
“I’ll make sure the boys at the chop shop are real gentle with her . . . You think I’d be caught dead driving that thing? It looks like a school bus for 6 year old pimps.”
There’s a bit in the new series The Audacity (comedy/drama about Silicon Valley, pretty good so far IMO) where the protagonist (morally bankrupt tech CEO) is driving his new Hummer to go… like intimidate a whistleblower or something, and a passerby shouts “nice Hummer, asshole!”
He shouts back “It’s an EV okay? I’m part of the solution! Bitch.”
I think that pretty much sums up where we’re at.
GM out here pulling a Bobby Tables to make sure everyone is escaping shell characters in their input data. 😉
Can’t believe the new Hummer has been around for 5 years now. I’ll never own one, but if money were no object I’d probably have one in my 25-car garage. It’s basically the answer to “What if we threw more batteries at the problem?”
Hummers are not now, have never been and will never be cool in civilian use
They’re barely cool in military use.
Only if the AC is functioning.
Having a vehicle with 4-wheel independent suspension and portal axles isn’t cool?
they hate because its a bandwagon