The GMC Hummer EV Is Still The Least Efficient EV You Can Buy

I have dreams about this car, sometimes. They aren’t good ones.Photo: General Motors

By now, we all know the Hummer EV’s deal. It’s comically oversized, so heavy it’s banned from parts of U.S. infrastructure, and somehow produces more carbon dioxide than a gas-powered vehicle with the same number of seats. It takes just about every toxic, road-destroying, and deadly trend in modern motoring and cranks it up to eleven. But how inefficient is it, empirically?

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Pretty damn, is the answer. Green Car Reports looked into the latest round of Hummer EV mile per gallon equivalency ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency, and found that the hulking behemoth has the worst MPGe of any car you can buy today. American exceptionalism, baby.

Damn, it’s almost like environmentalism wasn’t the primary concern when developing this Great Value Gravedigger that just so happens to be electric.Photo: General Motors

The Hummer pickup and SUV are each rated at 59 MPGe city and 48 highway with standard tires, while optional mud tires drop those numbers to 55 and 45 respectively. The Ford F-150 Lightning, for comparison, earns 76 MPGe city and 61 highway; the Rivian R1T manages a similar 74/66.

It’s almost as if making a vehicle bigger and heavier, for no reason other than to have the biggest and heaviest car, is a bad idea. The resulting inefficient vehicle is more expensive to operate, manages less range per kilowatt-hour of energy in its battery, and puts more wear and tear on roads, bridges, parking garages, and its own tires.

What’s the point? What’s the appeal? When comparably-capable EVs that can be had for less money are also cheaper to run, what’s the sales pitch for the Hummer? How much are those six little letters in the headlight worth?