The 2022 GMC Hummer EV is a massive off-road vehicle that has enough power to cause all four of the 35-inch tires to spin as it drives off the line when the WTF mode is engaged. It turns out that it’s also capable of popping a wheelie, or was before engineers intervened for the sake of safety. Because nothing screams “safe” like a 1,000 horsepower pickup truck that weighs roughly 9,000 pounds with a WTF driving mode.
According to TheDrive, the vehicle’s chief engineer, Al Oppenheiser, shared some details regarding the speed bumps his engineering team had to hurtle over throughout the development of the GMC Hummer EV pickup truck. One such obstacle was wheelies, an unexpected feature that needed to be tuned out before the truck could be delivered to customers.
Image via GMC
“In the early days when we were just trying to balance the front and rear torque, I got the front end to lift. We had to back off the torque on the front end.” Oppenheiser stated to the publication. This was partly due to the vehicle being developed digitally before it was ever brought out to test in the real world. When it comes to the production versions of the GMC Hummer EV, the wheelie capability wouldn’t be among the many features the vehicle has on offer.
If anyone finds a way to tune the Hummer EV, perhaps they can reenable the possibility of wheelies; however, we won’t be surprised if that ends up voiding the warranty. Nevertheless, the Hummer EV has managed to get on the road in the shortest development cycle in GM’s history. This was achieved by revealing the Hummer EV early, which allowed engineers to skip a few steps in the engineering process, such as testing with layers of black camouflage. Some may wonder if the record-setting development process affects the quality of the Hummer EV, but it looks like General Motors sprinted through up to this point but will take their time with the assembly process and launch of the 1,000 horsepower electric truck.
Image Via GMC.
