Tesla Cybertruck vs. GMC Hummer EV: What’s the difference?

Tesla Cybertruck and GMC Hummer EV are two big names hoping to capitalize on the rapidly-growing electric truck market. The EV market isn't just about compact hatchbacks and luxury SUVs anymore. Truck-lovers are getting a taste of the electric life as well.

Both these trucks are top contenders in the high-end truck space, offering a blend of power, performance, ruggedness and hi-tech technology. Plus some really quite unique designs, even though the two couldn't look any more different from each other.

So, which of these two big and brash EVs should be first on your wishlist? We pitched the Tesla Cybertruck vs the GMC Hummer EV to figure out which is the better option based on what we know so far.

Tesla Cybertruck vs. GMC Hummer EV: Specs

Tesla Cybertruck vs GMC Hummer EV: Release date and price

The GMC Hummer EV has an immediate advantage where release is concerned, with the Edition 1 truck arriving on the first customers’ driveways in Fall 2021. Meanwhile, the first Cybertrucks, while originally promising a very non-specific "late 2021" due date, though that was pushed back to "late 2022" and again to sometime in 2023.

The downside is, of course, that the first-edition Hummer EV was sold out for months. But you can still reserve one of the later models, the EV2, EV2X and EV3X, in either the Pickup or SUV configuration.

Those models also have reduced power and range, though that’s reflected in the lower price tag. The Pickup EV3X was the first of them to arrive, in Fall 2022. That gives Hummer another advantage over Tesla, considering the latest Cybertruck delay.

Even so, Tesla is the clear winner on the pricing front. The most expensive version of the Cybertruck, that we know of, was originally set to cost costs $69,900, and that gets you an increased range over the lower-specced models, plus three-motor all-wheel drive. 

Meanwhile, you can downgrade the car to two-motor, all-wheel drive ($49,900) or one-motor, rear-wheel drive ($39,900). Those prices are likely to change, given Tesla's recent slew of price hikes on other models.

A quad-motor Cybertruck is also on the way, per Elon Musk's Twitter feed, but there's no information on pricing. No doubt it will cost more than the tri-motor model.

The top-of-the-range Hummer EV Edition 1, by contrast, costs $105,595. The EV3X eases that burden down to just under $100,000, but reduces your range to 300 miles, while the EV2X costs just under $90,000 and only packs in two motors and a 300-mile range. At the bottom of the range is the EV2, which will cost $80,000 and has a 250-mile range. That won’t arrive until 2024, though, so we needn’t worry too much about it here. 

Those prices are the same regardless of whether you opt for the Pickup or SUV model.

The upshot of all this is that Tesla may have the advantage on the price front, but the Hummer is ahead of Tesla in terms of getting on the road (or off it). Especially now the Cybertruck has been delayed twice.

Tesla Cybertruck vs GMC Hummer EV: Design and interior

The GMC Hummer EV is, without a doubt, a classic Hummer design. It’s big, it’s wide, and there’s a lot of space inside. It’s a little bit more rounded than a traditional gas Hummer, and has appropriately futuristic LED headlamps.

Inside, there’s room to fit five people pretty comfortably, plus a bunch of hi-tech features as you’d expect from a car this expensive. Among them are a 13.4-inch touchscreen control panel and a 12.3-inch gauge cluster.

The Tesla Cybertruck is a different beast entirely, looking more like an asset from a ’90s-era cyberpunk game than any existing truck — though that seems to be the point, because Elon Musk is wacky like that. It’s flat, it’s angled, and it stands out. The latter is also true of the Hummer, but for entirely different reasons.

The Cybertruck’s interior continues the theme, with the shape of the seats and dash taking some cues from the outside of the car. Naturally, the roof is angled too, because there’s only so much Tesla could have done to disguise that glaring design choice.

Still, it has an air about it that just screams “Tesla”, complete with the  yoke steering wheel and the giant touchscreen control panel. It looks pretty spacious too, though nowhere near as much as the vast interior of the Hummer EV.

With that in mind, the Hummer looks to have the edge here. While some people may consider them big and obnoxious, that’s what they’re about. Hummer has just taken a design that already works for it, and adapted it to fit the all-electric future, whereas the Tesla Cybertruck looks like something that spawned in one of Elon Musk's fever dreams

Tesla Cybertruck vs GMC Hummer EV: Power

Hummers are big off-road-friendly cars, and they tend to have a lot of power behind them. The Hummer EV is no exception, and clocks in with 1,000 horsepower on the Edition 1 model. That drops to around 800 horsepower on the EV3X, and then again to 625hp on the EV2X. 

This also means that you can reach 0-60 in as little as three seconds, which is going to be helpful once EV drag racing kicks off among the youth of tomorrow.

Whichever way you look at it, you’re getting a serious amount of power in the Hummer EV, so don’t let anyone ever tell you that EVs can’t handle the heavy lifting afforded by internal combustion engines. 

Tesla hasn’t announced the horsepower of the Cybertruck, though Motor Trend estimates that it could have between 690 and 800 HP. Tesla has meanwhile promised the Cybertruck can go from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds for the three motor model,  4.5 seconds for the dual motor, and 6.5 seconds for the single motor.

Specs for the quad-motor model are still a complete unknown, and we'll likely have to wait until the truck is closer to production to find out.

That amount of power isn't to be sniffed at either, because it’s still a lot — and potentially more than the lower-spec Hummer EV models, if those estimates are correct. But Hummer does have the edge on this front, as far as we know. It’s a big car, and it’s got plenty of power behind it.

It's also worth noting that the Hummer has something called 'WTF Mode', which stands for 'Watts to Freedom'. It's essentially a launch mode, akin to Tesla's Ludicrous mode, for those times you want to test your car's acceleration. WTF mode lowers the truck by a few inches and sends the full force of the 1,000 horsepower to the wheels. It's not clear whether Cybertruck will get Ludicrous mode, though we suspect Tesla might throw it in just in case it's wanted.

So if you’re all about the numbers, then the Hummer EV is the one to go with, at least until we get official figures from Tesla.

Tesla Cybertruck vs GMC Hummer EV: Battery and range

The Hummer EV Edition 1 offers up to 350 miles of range, though the EV3X and EV2X drop that down to 300 miles and the EV2 to 250. That’s impressive compared to older and budget EV models, though fairly average in the high-end EV market.

The Hummer’s real advantage is its charging system, since it can handle up to 350 kW speeds from a compatible DC charger. Supposedly that can add 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes, which is incredible. In fact, it’s almost as fast as filling up a tank of gas, especially if you’re used to a car with a gas tank as large as that in a regular Hummer.

The downside here is that 350 kW chargers are not very common. You’re very unlikely to be able to install one at home, and you’re going to be hard-pressed to find one out on the road, because most EVs just can’t handle drawing in so much power that quickly.

The Tesla Cybertruck starts off at 250 miles for the single-motor model, which jumps to 300 miles if you pay for the two-motor upgrade. However, the top-tier model, with three motors, can go up to an insane 500 miles on a single charge.

Its charging speed is a slower 250 kW, but that can still apparently get you from 10% to 80% in 44 minutes. The added bonus is that Tesla operates its own Supercharger fast-charging network, meaning actually finding one that can recharge at its top speed should be fairly simple.

Tesla looks like being a clear winner here. While the single-motor model loses out in the range-number contest by 50 miles, the higher spec models make up for it. After all, 500 miles is a very long way, and you get it for less than two-thirds of the price of the top-spec Hummer. Hummer may have Tesla beaten on charging speed, but that comes with some obvious caveats, for the time being at least.

Obviously this is still early days for Hummer in the EV world, whereas Tesla has been in the EV and battery business for several years. It has a major headstart, and it’s clearly putting that to good use.

Tesla Cybertruck vs. GMC Hummer EV: Autonomous driving

The GMC Hummer EV packs in General Motors’ Super Cruise system, which offers Level 2 autonomous driving technology. That still requires the driver to pay attention to the road ahead, though the car can handle limited acceleration and steering to ease the burden of driving. This system should also allow for automated lane changes.

There’s also potential for Super Cruise to evolve into a Level 3 autonomous system, which wouldn’t necessarily require constant driver attention. Sadly, there’s no timeline as to when that might happen.

Tesla’s Autopilot is, by default, a Level 2 system that includes autonomous cruise control and limited automated steering within clearly marked lanes. Tesla also sells a “Full Self-Driving Capability” option, which costs an extra $10,000, though this isn’t fully autonomous driving. 

Instead it includes automated lane changing, automated parking, traffic and stop sign control, as well as a “summon” feature that lets you use your key or phone to navigate in and out of awkward parking spaces.

On top of this, Tesla’s FSD option has a beta version of something called “Navigate on Autopilot”, which can autonomously guide your car on the highway. Autosteer on city streets is still down as “coming soon”, though it’s not clear when.

Still, this feature would make those long road trips easier to handle, with the car able to take you from the on-ramp to the off-ramp at your chosen exit. A Tesla with this feature will also automatically navigate intersections and suggest lane changes. Emphasis is placed on the “beta” label though, because that means this system isn’t going to be functioning flawlessly. 

Tesla definitely has the edge here, and while Autopilot is nowhere close to complete car autonomy, those features give it the edge over Super Cruise as it stands right now. And that’s the case even if the major benefits are part of an optional extra that (currently) costs an additional $10,000.

Tesla Cybertruck vs. GMC Hummer EV: Extra features

Like any vehicle of its size, the Hummer also comes with a decent-sized truck bed: it’s five feet long, which while smaller than some, but still gives you plenty of space to store whatever it is you need to store. Tesla also comes with one, though it manages to trump Hummer by offering one 6.5 feet long, and with an extendable ramp to boot.

Sure, a tailgate is useful, but if you’re transporting anything heavy the Cybertruck’s design means there's less heavy lifting involved.

Still, the Hummer seems to be the true off-roader, with various different driving modes to help you get around when things aren’t so steady under-wheel.

That includes Crabwalk, which eases your truck in diagonal directions, Extra Mode — which raises your suspension to get you out of tough spots — and Ultravision, which uses 18 cameras to see what’s around you. 

That includes a view of the underside of your car. Naturally Hummer has ensured its EV has underbody armor, four-wheel steering, and dynamic suspension, because the wilderness is not a smooth paved road. On top of that, there are transparent sky panels and a 14-speaker Bose audio system

Tesla, meanwhile, has been focussing on the durability of the Cybertruck. In fact, when it was announced Elon Musk was proudly bragging about this; Tesla even went so far as to have someone hit the door with a sledgehammer to showcase it. Musk also bragged that the car was bulletproof, and could block shots from a 9mm handgun.

Unfortunately the car’s ‘Armor Glass’ didn’t stand up to scrutiny during the reveal event, when a thrown metal ball managed to crack two of the Cybertruck’s windows.

But beyond the durability afforded by the stainless steel ‘exoskeleton’ we don’t know a great deal about what else the Cybertruck will have to offer, beyond features you can find on other trucks anyway.

So, while Tesla may play up the versatility angle of the Cybertruck, Hummer has it beat when it comes to definitively stating what its truck is about. However, because there’s still a lot we don’t know about the Cybertruck, that could change.

Tesla Cybertruck vs GMC Hummer EV: Outlook

While Tesla may appear to have the edge in a number of important categories, the Hummer also looks like coming out on top in certain regards. That reflects the fact that though they have some similarities, these two cars seem designed for very different people. 

If you’re the kind of person who likes a big truck, then Hummer is likely the more obvious choice for you. Then again, that’s not to say you won’t be interested in the Tesla too, especially if you own a truck for more practical purposes, rather than as a fashion statement. Both trucks send a message, and the two couldn’t be more different from each other.

Which is better? It’s hard to say. In terms of actual truck work, both vehicles seem to be fairly evenly matched. Tesla may have range and price in its favor, but it also looks very weird. Then again the Hummer design is also an acquired taste that definitely isn’t designed for everyone.

What is certain, even at this early stage, is that these two electric behemoths will find plenty of fans. We look forward to driving them both and revisiting this comparison in the coming months and years.

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