Lucas Bell 
When GMC first announced the Hummer EV, the first thing that caught everyone’s attention was its outlandish 11,500 ft-lb of torque rating. And while we’ve since all learned that this was a bit of a marketing ploy, the range-topping Edition 1’s actual rating of 1,000 ft-lb is no joke either. Thanks to a little investigation by one Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained, we can now figure out how much torque the rest of the lineup is actually making.
The reason that the GMC Hummer EV was advertised with such high torque figures lies in the type of torque that General Motors was talking about. You see, we are all used to talking about motor torque, whereas GMC gave us the truck’s wheel torque rating. This figure represents the value of the motor torque multiplied by the vehicle’s gear ratios. During his early access with the GMC Hummer EV, Fenske was able to get an engineer to divulge the truck’s gear ratios. With that info and the wheel torque figures provided by GMC, we can do some simple algebra.
Fenske was able to confirm that the Hummer EV uses a reduction gearbox at each axle, with the front carrying a ratio of 13.3:1 and the rear at 10.5:1. Assuming the trucks will all use this same ratio, the math breaks down as follows:
EV2/ EV2X Models: 7,400 = x*10.5 + x*13.3
EV3X Model: 9,500 = 2x*10.5 + x*13.3
Solve the equation and what you find is that all of the Hummer models are packing some serious torque. The EV2 and the EV2X will both arrive with a rating of around 621 ft-lbs, while the three-motor EV3X will produce around 830 ft-lbs of torque. For comparison, the nearly $200,000 Tesla Model X P100D produces just 487 ft-lbs of torque.
While we’ll have to wait and see if the whole GMC Hummer EV lineup will arrive with the same gear ratios, these figures appear to be in line with what you’d expect based on the horsepower. In any case, we can all be done with the silly torque figures that have a comma in them.
