The GMC Hummer EV is a monster machine, bearing 1,000 horsepower from its triple-motor drivetrain that serves all four wheels. For a certain type of buyer, it was the vehicle to have to project an image of rugged imperviousness to the world. The only problem was, you couldn’t get one! Numbers were limited, GMC’s production ramp-up was slow. If you wanted a Hummer EV, you had to buy one used, and with such constrained supply, prices went to the moon. Now, it appears that prices for the Hummer EV are finally crashing back to Earth.
At launch, the base price for the Hummer EV was just $81,590, but between options and high demand, few to no owners actually paid such a low figure. The fancier Edition 1 model started at $110,295, by comparison, and when pre-orders opened, it sold out in just ten minutes. The punters were positively humming for Hummers. General Motors pleaded with dealers not to attach huge markups to their allocations, but that didn’t reign in the chaos. Tacking on $50,000 to the sticker price wasn’t unheard of at the time.
Even still, if you were lucky enough to be in the right spot on the waiting list, you could have purchased your Hummer EV at a hugely elevated price and still come out ahead by reselling it on the used market. Barely-used examples were selling well in excess of $200,000, and some even north of $250,000. The Hummer EV was a scalper’s dream, but now, that’s all started to change. Let’s dive in to the figures, starting with Cars & Bids.
Yes, Doug DeMuro’s own auction site seems to have recorded the highest sale of $260,420 for a Hummer EV pickup in April last year, right at the peak of the new model’s craze. Sales remained buoyant for several months, with a total of eight examples selling over $200,000 on the platform. By August, though, Hummer fever was waning, and the last one that sold for over $200K was on August 17 last year. It’s been a slow but steady decline since then.
Fast forward to today, and Hummer EV values are a hollow shadow of their former glory. The highest sale on Cars & Bids in the last 3 months was $135,000, on September 13th, 2023. The most recent to sell went for just $111,000 on November 2, while another was bid up to $110,000 but didn’t sell due to not meeting the reserve. Other recent examples were bid to $119,000 and $127,000, but again fell short of the seller’s reserve price. Y0u can see Doug talk about this on The Smoking Tire podcast:
Cast a wider net, and it’s the same story. Classic.com is well-known for aggregating sales results from a wide variety of sources, including Cars & Bids, Bring a Trailer, Mecum Auctions, Barrett-Jackson, and a variety of other popular high-profile sales channels. The graphs published on the site for the Hummer EV tell a tale of woe when it comes to Hummer EV resale values. In the beginning, things got off to a roaring start, with a car selling at Mecum’s Glendale auction in March 2022 for a healthy $286,000. Prices started to trickle down from there, save for an outlier that sold at Barrett-Jackson’s Vegas auction in July last year for a monumental $324,500.
By Classic.com’s records, though, the last sale over $200,000 was in October 2022, with prices continuing to drop from there. Prices held out for much of this year in the $150,000 to $170,000 range, but the last 3 months have seen those numbers fall off a cliff. Auctions have been failing to meet reserves, with many seeing the highest bids failing to reach even $120,000. Some owners and dealerships have chosen to lower their sights in the now-depressed market. Several used dealers have Hummer EVs on sale for $120,000 to $140,000, while a Hummer EV pickup sold for just $111,000 on Cars & Bids on November 1.
Over on eBay, it’s presently a mixed bag. Texas luxury dealer Earth Motor Cars has several 2023 and 2024 models listed under $140,000. Hubbard Auto Center in Arizona is more optimistic and has an SUV listed for $155,000, while Impex Auto Sales in North Carolina is hoping for the glory days to return with a $198,900 price on a 2023 pickup.
Any garden-variety economist will tell you that it’s no surprise that used prices are falling. As GMC builds more Hummer EVs, the supply increases. Simultaneously, as we get further from the hubbub of the model’s launch, demand tends to wane. That has a downward pressure on prices. Further compounding the issue is that the used market is no longer the only viable place to get a Hummer EV. A trip to Cars.com turns up 430 hits for brand-new Hummer EVs, with some models posted on dealer sites for prices from as low as $91,390 (it’s not clear how many of these are allocated and how many are actually in the store).
Some dealers are still trying to command over $200,000 for a brand-new example, but there are scores listed well under $140,000. As a guide, GMC lists the MSRP for 2024 models starting at $98,845 for the dual motor 2X pickup, or $106,945 for the tri-motor 3X model, before tax, title, dealer fees, and any options.
Of course, the price you pay for a car at a dealership is rarely exactly what it says on the sticker. You might struggle to hit those numbers listed online, but it’s a useful guide as to what a new Hummer EV costs. This has an impact. It’s going to be a lot harder to sell your used Hummer EV for over $130,000 when dealers are advertising factory fresh examples for similar money.
The lesson is that if you’re trying to offload your Hummer EV right now, it’s probably a bit late to make out like a bandit. You might break even if you’re lucky and you find the right buyer. Furthermore, it would be incredibly unwise to try and buy a Hummer EV right now with the intent to resell it for profit. The gold rush is over, and the Hummer EV market is, gradually, becoming just like any other car.
Image credits: GMC, Cars & Bids via screenshot, Classic.com via screenshot, Cars.com via screenshot
Let the rich feast on the bones of each other as opposed to the rest of us. Anyone looking to flip for an obscene property deserves what they get. And if you are going to have scalpers I don’t begret dealers upping the price to get it themselves.
This thing is the poster child of all that’s wrong with the car industry and what people are willing to buy and drive.
What an absolute overweight plastic junk EV-on-fire behemoth! Also, what a ripoff…I don’t even want to know who these people are who would want this POS and would spend all this $ on them- get a life
Tell us how you really feel Freelivin1327! 😉
Of course, I agree completely with your sentiments. 🙂 The fact that GM sold ANY of these at all is yet more proof that wealth and intelligence needn’t go together.
Kinda disappointing to listen to the TST podcast, then come to this website and see that they have shamelessly reposted the content. You cited your source in this one, but I don’t think you even did that in the Honda CR-V post. It comes across as lazy, and I’ve come to expect higher quality writing on this site.
The concept of “news” evades you. Would you write the editor of a newspaper that ran a similar story as another?
I see your point, but it seems slightly different than that, it seems, at last to me, more analogous to another news site constantly browsing the New York Times, and only reporting on something once NYT does, and then only rephrasing their article.
These things were never meant to be long lived or iconic. They are effectively a super car in in SUV guise, and they are following an expected arc. GM decided to introduce its new technology with something frivolous and excessive. They did their job getting attention, and becoming play things for the rich and irresponsible.
Good, I’m glad these are a flop. I’m not opposed to big vehicles, but this is such a waste of resources. I’ve seen exactly 2 of these since they were released, 1 was a pickup in 2021, and much more recently, the SUV. I thought both were horrid.
Meanwhile, I see Rivians every day, and I really like them. The R1S actually ticks all the boxes for me, except for the fact it’s about 3X what my budget could handle.
they are a flop?… where did you read that? This article is just about scalping and the secondary resale marketplace.
Gm is still selling all that they build (which is still not that many as they start getting ready to build Ultium platform models at their plant). And I think they still have like 90,000 reservations.
In other news.. I’ve seen a pretty decent amount of these on the roads where I live. ~2 weeks ago, I had the distinct joy of driving right behind one (one lane over), which was in turn right behind a white Avalanche. I had never really put two and two together, but it looked so much like a newer, 125% larger Avalanche, I just couldn’t stop laughing.
I live in the Land of EV’s (California) and still have only seen on of these ugly trucks, in Santa Barbara. I see Rivians every day, and Lucids every couple days. I even saw a Cybertruck on the road a couple weeks ago.
Who buys these Hummers??
I live in Los Angeles and I think I’ve seen maybe one.
zzwho is going to buy that CyberMonday thing? Crazy people line right up at the PT Barnum tent
I’ve seen the Hummer EV and the Cybertruck in person (in traffic) once. I think the Hummer looks just as dumb in person. I think the wild styling of the Cybertruck could grow on me.
Like you could used to it or like mold?
Yes, exactly! It’s easy to get use to mold. 🙂
I’ve only ever seen one Hummer. Plenty of Rivians though. The Hummer is slightly smaller than I thought, whereas the R1S is much bigger. I couldn’t see around the Rivian at all when I was stuck behind one.
The Rivian is enormous, but thanks to good (and friendly) design it still comes across as reasonable.
I am rooting for Rivian, but I don’t think giant SUVs and pickups are going to save humanity from ourselves.
Well, there’s only so many well-heeled suckers with penis issues to go around, you know.
Huh, almost like paying over sticker to be the first to have a new car is a bad idea or something…
I live in a world where a car costing nearly as much as my first house is insane to me. I still can’t justify spending 40k on a vehicle.
$30k is still my mental block, I guess I need to get over it, because my company just increased the minimum MSRP requirement for employees’ personal vehicles from $24,000 to $35,000, and the one I bought last year was $27,500 (they’re letting it be grandfathered, but I have to replace it with one that complies once it hits 4 years old)
That just makes me nauseous to think about. They think their company’s rep will be sullied because someone didn’t get their Subaru Outback in the right trim?
I guess? I don’t know, its a ridiculous situation
What fresh garbage is this? Will you be required to meet clients in your personal vehicle? If so, why don’t they have their own fleet of cars for such tasks? Otherwise… they can eff off, if a ChangLi gets me to work on time, there’s going to be a ChangLi parked in a space. Do they hand you an extra $35k on top of your salary and tell you to buy a car? I’d rather keep my older car rolling and bank that money. What if you rolled up in Gossin’s miserable old Jag? It cost more than $35k new… And might take $35k in parts just to evict the evil gremlins.
So, its not just me, right? It really is a weird policy? All I know is, I drive about 24,000 business miles a year on my personal car, and I need to be reimbursed for those, and the company won’t do so unless the car in question meets their rules for mileage reimbursement (at least 4 doors, at least $35,000 MSRP, and no more than 4 years old), so, whatever. Also, the mileage reimbursement is below the IRS rate, so, I am definitely itemizing deductions this time around, didn’t keep good enough records to do it last year.
I have same stipulations for my job.
If you factor in depreciation (which is at its worst in the first 3 years of a cars life) and the fact that they require more expensive cars then net out their reimbursement. Compare that to keeping your older car and itemizing with the full IRS deduction and you might actually come out ahead by ignoring their BS and keeping your car. Depends on your tax bracket.
Also, sounds like your employer is run by assclowns. Sorry.
That’s messed up. I show up every day in my 500€, 24 year old shitbox and my budget thanks me for it.
These days I daily a 17-year-old RAV-4 that I bought for $18K when it was 2 years old, and the newest car in my driveway is a 13-year-old Lexus. I seriously doubt I could afford a 2020 or newer 4-door anything. It occurs to me that the last time I got paid mileage at work, I was driving a then-38-year-old F250 with a 360 big block and 4:10 gears. The mileage payment was not very helpful.
Yeah, that’s a shitty policy. Then again, I once worked for a company that would pay your car payment once you made it to district level management, but only if you owned an American make. Didn’t matter that my Honda was built in Ohio. I was told to buy a Chevy, GM, or Ford. Also, you couldn’t park in the front lot at corporate with a non-American vehicle. I had to park out back and walk.
That BS needs to be negotiated out of your contract. Eff ’em. Your personal property is your business, not theirs. If they buy the car for you, then it’s not an issue. Since it apparently comes out of your pocket, they can go pound rocks.
I don’t have a contract, I’m not in the entertainment business, also not sure how one middle manager at a local subsidiary in the Mid Atlantic US is supposed to negotiate with a $44 billion European parent company
Please tell us more about a minimum MSRP requirement. Are they paying for it? What is the supposed benefit to the company? Are you meeting clients in your car?
I am in NYC, so this is all kinda foreign to me.
Well, they reimburse for any business-related driving that I do at 52.61 cents per mile, no, I usually meet clients at their workplaces or in restaurants, and I have no idea what the benefit to the company is, other than its both cheaper than buying or leasing company cars for everyone. They’re also paying less than the IRS reimbursement rate of 65.5 cents per mile, but that’s a separate issue
Yes, it is madness…especially since one of my cars in the past cost $100 total & of course have read about other people having gotten cars cheaper than that back in the day…I would want to start my own personal junkyard w/ hundreds of cars for that much $!
I guess it doesn’t seem as bad because house prices have gone up faster than car prices. I’m going to have to spend supercar money to buy my first home. (I doubt I could get a mortgage on a McLaren though).
Never spent more than £3000 on a car though.
My first home was $150,000. I sold it for $225,000 & bought my current home for $268,000. It’s now valued around $450,000. Meanwhile, I bought my Honda CR-V for $25,000 around the same time I bought the first house. It is now valued at $3500. So my house didn’t quite double in value, but my car is worth about 15% of what it was when I bought it.
I’ve been thinking about demand for specific vehicles ever since I read the article here the other day about the first “production spec” CyberTruck.
For something new and unique, there is always some level of initial appeal. If somebody, for example, gets a pair of leopard-print leather pants and wears them around, they probably get a lot of “Ooh, I like your pants!” compliments. Do all those people really like the pants? Probably not, but they’re eye-catching and novel.
I feel like the same is true with cars. Back when the Jeep Gladiator first came out, there was a tremendous buzz around it. Dealers were charging big markups, and prospective buyers were waiting months to get their hands on them. I’m not even a Jeep guy, and I’d get excited when I’d see one on the road. But now? The novelty has worn off. It’s no longer special to see one of those Wrangler pickups on the road, and (I think) you can get one for MSRP or close to it.
I would expect something similar to be the case with the big electric trucks. They certainly stand out from everything else on the road, and they are initially available in only limited quantities. But will they still be special as they become more plentiful on the roads and once anyone who wants one can get their hands on it? I don’t know for sure. I just try not to get too worked up over initial hype (though I’ll admit that it’s sometimes hard not to).
I live in an area full of idiots with more money than sense who should be snapping these up. I’ve never actually seen one on the road.
I guess the heavier they are the harder they fall.
But if you hold on to it for like 25 more years and don’t drive it literally ever, it might be worth 200k again! You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. This counts as investment advice, so I’ll be looking for my cut 25 years from now.
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
A phrase only uttered by those who do not comprehend that zero =/= no data.
Are you saying Wayne Gretzky doesn’t understand data! Banned from Canada!
I’m only vaguely aware of who that is so maybe?
I’m hoping in 25 years I can get my hands on a 2023 kei truck from Japan to terrorize the seniors while cruising around Leisureville.
Well, Christmas is fast approaching, I guess all the HUMMER flippers will have to go back to their old business model of buying up all the Tickle Me Elmos they can find
It’s still reselling over MSRP…
Exactly what I gathered too. Not what I would consider a price crash or prices falling off a cliff. And the ones listed near MSRP, availability questionable.
nelsonhaha.jpg
The scourge of ADMs are almost behind us.
Just need Z06s to come down a bit more.
Also, leather is not even available in the Hummer, just “leather alternative”. I’ve noticed this a lot, even with premium EVs. Weird and disappointing. Does GM think Hummer buyers are motivated by saving cows?
Cows are themselves a source of GHG so not so much saving the cow as not supporting the cattle industry.
Right, I understand the reasoning for using vinyl in EVs marketed to people who care about the climate.
I find it a bit surprising to see in a Hummer. Whatever you think of its actual environmental impact over the big truck it’s probably replacing, it’s certainly not marketed as an eco-friendly vehicle.
Ahhh, successful plastic rebranding
GM’s been doing that for decades, at least since Pontiac’s Morrokide in the ’60s (really was a good vinyl, looked almost exactly like leather and was virtually indestructible)
Oh no no I’m well aware! I just think it’s hilarious that synthetic plastic got the environmentally friendly rebrand. I am much more into honesty of materials – just be straight with what it is you’re using!
Oh, agree, but, given the choice, I’m taking vinyl for the durability and lack of maintenance- unless it’s actually really good leather like in a Rolls-Royce or an old Jaguar, but we know that’s not what Detroit uses or will ever use, so, with a choice between vinyl or low grade over-processed plastic coated leather that looks and feels like vinyl, I’ll just take the vinyl
Nothing wrong with that. MB-Tex is supposed to be even better than leather.
Hummer EVs are also themselves a source of greenhouse gas.
All EVs are. They aren’t 0 emissions, they’re 0 tailpipe emissions. You have to drive them for a certain distance (what that distance actually is hotly debated) before they’re a net positive compared to ICE vehicles when it comes to carbon emissions.
If you charge them at night, then they’re nocturnal emissions
The issue being that the Hummer EV is a monstrosity whose break even distance is certainly longer than the life of the vehicle.
No doubt. I wonder how much more GHG making those tires alone generate vs making a set of tires for a Bolt.
Vinyl is a petroleum product. Pick your poison.
I’ll take wool, thanks.
Lovely Harris Tweed seats. You could do worse.
Comfortable, durable, classy, low emissions and (hopefully) cruelty free.
What’s not to love?
Cowhide is pretty much a byproduct of beef production. Otherwise the hides just get processed into some other gross thing or get tossed in a landfill. Exception being cows that are raised to have zero hide imperfections, but those go to Bentley and Rolls Royce.
I have no problem with leather, at least under those circumstances. I’d rather the hide be used than discarded. I consider it disrespectful to the animal to not at least try to use everything it gives, especially if that *gift* is the best option. One example are bike saddles. Saddles made of suspended leather are amazing because that 100+ year old tech just WORKS. They can last for decades too if taken care of. When I buy a roasting chicken or a turkey I try to use every animal part that comes in the bag in one way or another. Bones, guts, meat, skin, everything. Only the plastic is discarded. Even eggs, shells are useful things.
The flippers might be feeling Bummer, but I think the early buyers are Dummer like no other.
All the frisky flippers feeling number.
Friend and I were looking at this a few weeks ago. Some of the earlier flips are what kills me, as it’s $8000 to $10,000 in depreciation a month. In a lot of states that’s like taking the paychecks (after tax) of someone who makes $180,000-200,000/year or so (state/local tax dependent) and just setting them directly on fire.
Though premium EVs are depreciation whales in general as I listed a few weeks ago. Lucid Airs, Audi e-Trons, Mercedes EQS, and even PLAID trims of the Model S and X all tend to have initial depreciation in the first 10-16 months that’s more akin to less desirable supercars than anything else.
The day is coming when I can replace my Volt with an EQS or Lucid for $30k, and I’m gonna love it.
These are all big, expensive, luxury cars; a market that has traditionally had pretty crazy depreciation. Are they really that much worse than most other similarly priced ICE luxury cars and SUVs? I mean, E & S Classes, 5 & 7 Series, A6 & A8s, X7s, Q8s, Cayennes, Panamaras, etc all depreciate like crazy. Is having their EV alternatives depreciate a couple percentage points more really that noteworthy?
For some Godforsaken reason the Porsche SUV’s don’t depreciate near as much. I’d love to pick up a used Macan, but I’m not paying 80% of new for a three year old car.
> Are they really that much worse than most other similarly priced ICE luxury cars and SUVs?
Yes. You know what happens when $50K is on the hood of an RS e-Tron? Depreciation immediately increases by another $50K. Not to $50K, ANOTHER $50K. Add in depreciation, charging, insurance, sales tax, etc and the monthly TCO right now of someone who paid full freight for an Audi RS e-Tron and then traded it in a year later is easily over $6000/mo for the ones who got screwed by the current discounts the most.
Trade in prices on some of these cars are sub-50% of MSRP after just 12 months, and even auction prices are only around 55%. The S-Class, 7 series, etc. don’t dive off a cliff THAT fast. This makes S-Class depreciation seem normal and reasonable by comparison.
The really nutty ones are the higher end trim Lucid Airs. I thought Maserati MC20 resale values were rough until I compared it to the higher end Lucid Airs.
I’m with you. I’ve seen a lot of talk of crazy depreciation lately but it feels like we all forgot that pre-covid as soon as you drove a car off of the lot it lost like 30% of its value.
I see dead VW Phaetons…said in that kids voice from the movie. (I See Dead People in case you forgot)
Good. It’s a stupid, dangerous waste of resources that exists solely so the conspicuous consumption crowd can have dick measuring contests. It sucks, flippers suck, and we have enough goddamn six figure several ton vanity pieces for the 1% to draw attention to themselves in as is. I’m sure you’ll see these stupid ass things for 50 grand in a year or two.
took the words right out of my damn mouth.
I always thought it existed because GM found a way to get the conspicuous consumption crowd to finance an R&D project.
GM? They’re just following the lead of Tesla, Apple, Microsoft…
I’m not sure this is really even 1%er territory. Hovering around 100k seems well within “dual income professionals with terrible financial skills” territory which covers a whole lot of people.
Heck, at 60mo, 8%, and 20k in equity from a previous overpriced King Denali Ranch Longhorn whatever, that’s only $1700/mo which is starting to be in “first good promotion out of college and I can make the payments if I only eat ramen and defer my student loans” territory.
Saw one on the road for the first time the other day. For all the hype and pearl-clutching about it, it looked unremarkable amongst all the other giant SUVs and trucks. I barely noticed it as it rambled by. Wouldn’t be surprised if it just never quite lived up to the “look-at-me” crowd’s expectations.
The only time I’ve seen one in motion was when a dealer loaned a group one to pull a parade float.
One of the targeted ads on this page is showing me a $30,000 Hummer Edition 1 from Texas-China on Alibaba.
I’m seeing an add for a 2020 Ford Escape for $18,000. spot on
There is something about this floating between, it takes money to make money, a fool and their money are soon parted, and schadenfreude.
I have no sympathy for those who may lose money if they had that much to start with. Eventually, the prices may rise again if they wait long enough for them to be collectible.
“Investing” in a depreciating asset that also requires upkeep capital (insurance, registration, and so on) is a risky business. Heck, stocks can be unpredictable, and assuming that you know the future value of electric Hummers is not exactly wise.
I would have thought the market for electric hummers would have been limitless.