In an interview at the Detroit Auto Show, GMC’s director of marketing, Rich Latek, disclosed that the company has received more than 90,000 reservations till now for the GMC Hummer EV. Latek said the solid numbers of reservations are backed by extremely strong customer interest and what’s interesting to note is that the rate of the reservation is constantly on the rise. He also clarified that the reservation numbers are for both the SUV and Pickup truck versions combined.
At the time of announcing the price hike on June 17, the automaker had reported over 77,500 reservations for the EV, so the number has gone up by around 12,500 in just two months. The staggering 90,000 reservations show how widely the Hummer EV has been accepted by customers despite the fact that it had to initially face criticism due to its big bulky size, its expensive price tag, and it is not justifying the duties of a work truck. With the orders volume growing month on month, the automaker will be mighty pleased to see the Hummer EV generating this level of interest.
To give you an idea about the popularity of the Hummer EV amongst the masses, let us add some more context to the reservation numbers. According to a survey report, out of the 90,000 interested customers, 42 percent customers are new to the GM family and 75 percent customers are new to the GMC brand. So far the majority of the reservations have come from states like California, Florida and Texas- the latter two states which do not have a history of good percentage of EV registrations. As per General Motors as well, nearly 70 percent of the reservation have come from customers who have never owned a battery electric vehicle (BEV) before.
Furthermore, Latek also said people are keen to follow up on the reservations made and the conversion rate of pre orders into actual sales is above 90 percent. This can also be understood this way, the waiting period for the popular Hummer EV is very long so the prices in the used-car market will go high like crazy, that means buyers can make good profit out of the purchase.
With the overwhelming demand forecast for the vehicle, GM will have to ramp up the production plans to satisfy the pending orders. Because even if GMC starts manufacturing 1,000 vehicles per month and the sales conversion rate comes down to a realistic 75%, still it will take more than five years to fulfill these orders.