If you like your truck served with a side of spectacle, the 2026 GMC Hummer EV Pickup is less a vehicle and more a statement of intent. It’s big, it’s brash, it’s unapologetically over-the-top.. and yet, in a world of electric pickups that fret about range and practicality, it somehow feels like the purest expression of the electric truck idea I’ve yet seen.
Underneath that brutish exterior is an 800-volt Ultium electric drivetrain that, in its top form, produces around 1,160 horsepower and an absurd 13,000 lb-ft of wheel torque. Not horsepower at the wheels, but torque. These are numbers that feel more like fighter-jet specs than something hauling lumber. With the Carbon Fiber Edition’s software tweaks and hardware accents, GMC claims a 0–60 mph sprint in ~2.8 seconds, which is quick enough to give some sports cars pause.
But here’s where the Hummer EV starts acting like a Hummer again: at nearly 9,600 lbs, its mass dwarfs almost every other truck on the road. It’s this heft that makes its theatrics possible, but which also highlights the contradiction in its DNA. You get astonishing acceleration and supercar-like launch figures, but braking distances and efficiency suffer for it. Go fast, don’t stop.
And GMC hasn’t just leaned on straight-line bragging rights. The 2026 model introduces an evolved off-road wizardry feature called King Crab mode, a refinement over the original Crab Walk that lets the massive truck pivot and snake itself into tight spots with rear-steering dynamics previously unseen on anything this size. Combine that with adaptive air suspension, four-wheel steering, and Extract Mode (lifting the truck nearly six inches), and you’ve got something that’s technically ultra-capable off the trail. Even if most of the trail is being literally crushed by this massive machine.
Interior and tech are as conflicted as the machine’s character. You sit in a genuine future truck with large screens, Super Cruise hands-free driving (now with automatic lane changes tied to Google Maps routing), and V2L/V2H bidirectional charging; but, you’re also reminded at every turn that this is a premium GM with some surprisingly mid-tier infotainment responsiveness if you fiddle too much with the system.
Range is respectable for something this massive. It’s generally rated in the ~280–318 mile range depending on trim, tires, and options. It cannot defy the physics of lugging around nearly five tons of electric hardware.
At its core, the 2026 Hummer EV Pickup is exactly what you think it is: a technological flex. It’s a rolling showcase of how far battery and drivetrain tech has matured. It’s also an enormous, lavishly priced (~$99K+), sometimes impractical piece of automotive theater. You could compare it to more focused EV trucks like the Rivian R1T or Ford F-150 Lightning, but that’s like comparing a Broadway musical to a documentary film: both have value, but they’re trying to do very different things.
For those who want a tool with payload, utility, as a no-nonsense daily workhorse, there are better choices. For those who want a conversation piece, an engineering oddity that turns heads and launches physics questions, the 2026 Hummer EV Pickup delivers in spades. It’s exactly the kind of weird, wonderful contradiction I want to drive.
This review originally published on DriveModeShow.com.
