Everybody wants to talk about the ridiculous specs with the new electric GMC Hummer, like how it supposedly has 1,000 horsepower and all that. To me, that’s meaningless. I want to talk about the new Hummer’s lights instead.
Despite multiple video teasers and multiple versions of the same image of the new electric Hummer’s grille, there’s not much else to go on until its full reveal later this year. But we may be taking one detail of the teaser image for granted: those little orange guys up on the roof.
See them? Those three orange/amber/yellow lights? Those are called “identification lights” in government-speak, and they’re required on commercial vehicles wider than 80 inches.
Using my expert deduction skills, it’s probably safe to assume GM paid money to put these lights on the roof of their new Hummer not just because people like flashy things, but also because, well, the new Hummer will be more than 80-inches wide.
But it also gives us other clues! Some of you may know, for example, that the current Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon measure in at 80.5-inches wide, but these vehicles do not feature the same three lights on the roof.
That’s because the three-light requirement is only for commercial vehicles, which are defined as having a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 10,000 pounds. Those SUVs simply don’t weigh enough to require the lights. This is also why the current Silverado 1500, with a max GVWR of 6900 pounds, doesn’t need the lights, but the Silverado 2500, which GM claims comes in right at 10,000 pounds, does need the lights.
The only thing I can’t figure out right now is where the Hummer’s two missing lights are. A commercial vehicle of this size also requires clearance lights at the widest part of the vehicle. Usually these are just two lights also on the corners of the roof, one on either side flanking the three identification lights in the middle. Sometimes these are integrated elsewhere, like in the bumper on the Ford Raptor. There’s no indication of these in the Hummer teaser, but they may show up eventually.
GMC declined to comment about any inferences from the teaser image.
So! These three little lights actually tell us a lot about the next Hummer. It should be over 80-inches wide, not including mirrors, and should tout a GVWR of at least 10,000 pounds. It’s going to be big, and I can’t wait to see the rest of it at its reveal on May 20.
Or... all of this is wrong and GMC is just putting the lights there because they look cool. It wouldn’t surprise me.