GMC Hummer EV is sold out for at least two years

On one hand GMC is having probably the best time in the company’s history - the demand for its cars has never been anywhere near this level. Whatever model GM puts on the market - be it GMC Hummer, GMC Sierra, Chevy Silverado or Equinox or Blazer - they all get snapped up in a matter of hours.

On the other hand - this huge demand means huge waiting times. The GM group simply cannot manufacture enough cars in reasonable time. Never mind Covid related delays, supply chain issues or chip shortages - GM simply couldn’t deliver such numbers even in the best times.

Take the GMC Hummer EV, earlier in the year the company confirmed it had over 65,000 orders for both the pickup and the SUV. At that time the company was confident that despite the surprisingly large number of orders, it was going to deliver the cars within 2 years. Painful waiting times for customers but that info did not deter new buyers.

When GMC unveiled the Sierra EV, the order book for GMC Hummer EV stood at 90,000 vehicles - that’s about 5,000 new orders coming through every month. If the production ramp up at the GM’s factory Zero goes according to the plan, it means well over 2 years waiting times, in case of small hiccups along the way - 3 years seems more likely.

But GMC is not making only the Hummer EV. The company has just released the Sierra EV which sold out the entire production in less than two days. Then there is the Chevy Blazer and Equinox EV, there is Chevy Silverado which already clocked up 150,000 orders by the end of July. The demand for EVs is so high that Chevy plans to double the production of Bolt EV to 70,000 units a year from 2023.

With the Hummer EV racking up 90,000 orders and current production rate of 700 units per month it would take GMC nearly 11 years just to fill the existing orders. The company claims the ramp up is going well, the Factory Zero is shutting down for a few weeks this November for upgrades in order to increase the production rate. Trying to stay positive here but the 2 or even 3 year waiting time is starting to look optimistic.

Despite all that, the news is actually good - at least for the company. The orders are coming through and the conversion rate sits at over 95 percent - yet another record. People always placed orders for new cars, often for speculative reasons. Never had any company had so many pre-orders converted to actual money-down purchases.

In current climate, with the inflation on the loose like a wild animal, ordering a GMC Hummer EV actually sounds like a good investment - their resale value is through the roof with many fetching double the MSRP. That would explain why so many pre-orders convert to purchases. GMC should run an advert: “Buy a Hummer - it’s safer than money in the bank.”

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