I can’t imagine any electric vehicle tougher than the 2025 GMC Hummer EV. However, the Tesla Cyberbeast.

The following is a brief review of the 2025 Hummer EV 3X (tri-motor) SUV with the available Extreme Off-Road Package. General Motors graciously offered me the opportunity to drive it for a week through Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert. I’ve put the full specs at the bottom. (Note that I tested an AWD Cybertruck, but not the Cyberbeast.)

Disclaimer: I don’t do “extreme” off-roading (eg the Rubicon Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains). This is a small part of off-road. I fall into the larger group of casual off-roaders. But sometimes I encounter extreme conditions when trying to cross vast unpopulated wildernesses in places like the Mojave Desert.

TLDR:

Pros: Very tough, fearless off-road EV. Very little can stop this 9,000+ pound beast. And the 35-inch tires are the icing on the cake. It’s a Rivian R1S on steroids. Plenty of room to sleep in the back. (Comparable to some studios I’ve rented.) Surprisingly quick/quick on the highway. Range is rated at 289 miles, but I charged it to over 90 percent once and it got close to 300 miles. Cons: It’s huge / can be difficult to maneuver in parking lots. It is expensive to charge.

Mojave Desert:

Over the past few months, I’ve taken four vehicles to the Mojave Desert. A Rivian R1S, a Rivian R1T, a Subaru Solterra and a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT AWD. Let me put it this way: The Rivian is a tough, highly competent electric off-road vehicle. But it’s not a Hummer. (It’s not fair to compare Subaru and Mach-E.) The Hummer is outrageous. With its 35-inch tires, extreme ground clearance, extreme power and its extraordinary dimensions. Let me put it another way: with the Hummer, you feel invincible in the Mojave even when faced with the most extreme off-road conditions.

While the Hummer cut through the soft sand of the Mojave with ease, more importantly, it didn’t flinch when faced with the many steep slopes, treacherous angles, and rocky terrain that the Mojave foothills can throw its way. At one location about 25 miles north of Mojave, California, near Red Rock Canyon State Park, I hit some extremely rocky terrain combined with steep slopes that would dislodge smaller all-terrain vehicles. The Hummer crawled over the rocks as if it was born for this very purpose. (I stupidly forgot to use the crab walk. My apologies to the GM! But I really didn’t need it.)

Video footnote: I did not film the most difficult terrain. I was too consumed to drive and in most cases alone – hard to drive and shoot decently at the same time.

Highway:

Amazingly, despite its size and weight, the Hummer EV doubles as a fast and very fast car on the highway. There’s a steep ramp on Interstate 5 north of Castaic, California that is my litmus test for the acceleration needed to outrun the swarms of big rigs that come at you when you jump onto the 5. The Hummer is like a rocket. And I couldn’t help but think that some of those truck drivers were scratching their heads to see such a large vehicle moving so fast. (And I was scratching my head.)

Other stuff (Super Cruise and charging):

Super Cruise: The Hummer is available with GM’s Super Cruise, a hands-free autonomous driving technology (Level 2), which I have used extensively on other GM vehicles. Super Cruise essentially drives the car in most highway situations. It performs acceleration, braking, lane changing and steering. I used it as much as possible with the Hummer. It was a bit rough in places (sometimes it wouldn’t recognize objects along the highway) and sometimes it would turn off unnecessarily. But GM told me they fixed the last bug and, like The Tesla FSDGM is constantly working to improve Super Cruise’s ability to handle unexpected situations.

Loading: Charging can definitely be expensive with the Hummer if you do a lot of long trips and use public charging. My humble Chevy Bolt costs $20 at most to fully charge from 10 percent to nearly a full charge. The Hummer, just to do a partial charge, say from 30 percent to 90 percent, can easily exceed $40. I’m in Southern California so charging these days can be expensive. (Not like the good old days when I could fully charge my Bolt at public chargers for about $12.) That said, I got very fast charges on Electrify America’s 350kW chargers, peaking at over 300kW. This translates into very fast charging.

Tesla NACS adapter: The Hummer came with a NACS adapter that allowed me to charge at Tesla Superchargers, which I did frequently. This is a must-have if you travel a lot. Tesla Supercharger locations are typically far superior to other public charging options such as Electrify America. The critical difference is redundancy. Every Supercharger location I visited had at least a dozen chargers (often more). That means if a few are down, you still have plenty available. Not the case with Electrify America, which usually comes with six chargers (occasionally eight). Although Electrify America has upgraded many of the chargers in Los Angeles over the past year or so, I still have to deal with queues and unavailable chargers at some Electrify America locations.

The result:

The 2025 GMC Hummer 3X SUV with Extreme Off-road Package is at once extravagant, hopelessly tough and fast.

Full Specifications:

2025 GMC Hummer EV 3X SUV (tri-engine) with available Extreme Off-Road Package. It includes 18″ black aluminum wheels, 35″ MT tires (Goodyear), front power locks with virtual rear locks, additional underbody protection + skid plates, rocker guards with assist steps, ball splined half-shafts and easy-to-clean rubber flooring. This vehicle also comes with Gen 2 Super Cruise, GM’s technology for autonomous vehicles (driver assistance). Price shown above as of October 2024: $120,505.