GMC has confirmed that a 60-minute documentary charting the development and build of the new Hummer EV will be broadcast on the History Channel on 27 March. An accompanying teaser clip of ‘Revolution: GMC Hummer EV’ has also been shared.
The documentary details the genesis of the Hummer EV project as well as the rigours involved in the vehicle’s development ahead of its launch last December. And in particular, the incredibly tight two-year timeframe GMC’s engineers had to work with.
The 60-minute ‘Revolution’ is an intriguing concept, charting as it does not just the first fully-electrified mass-market production model from General Motors – albeit one boasting a characterful heritage – but the unspoken pressures heaped atop it as the ‘prototype’ for an evolving GMC moving forward. Even the teaser clip does not shy away from the possibility of GMC’s ‘supertruck’ sinking the company’s EV aspirations.
“Our goal was to upend what an electric vehicle is capable of and push the boundaries from 100 years of vehicle development experience,” GMC executive chief engineer Josh Travel explains. “This documentary captures the soul of a team capable of incredible innovation and resilience. Their learnings are laying the foundation of vehicle development for decades to come.”
Directed by Sean King O’Grady, who is currently working on a film exploring autonomous driving standards called Do robots run red lights?, ‘Revolution’ outlines the development required of GM’s new Ultium platform, the EV-dedicated architecture that underpins not just the Hummer but also the Chevrolet Silverado EV, the upcoming GMC Sierra EV, and GM’s ‘Brightdrop’ commercial vehicles. Footage and feedback from extreme weather testing in both Michigan and Moab, Utah, but also goes behind the scenes to the full refurbishment of Factory ZERO, GM’s EV-dedicated Detroit assembly plant and thus a nod to the changing dynamics within the automotive landscape as EV manufacture becomes more prevalent.
“The story we discovered while filming was far more fascinating than anything we could have hoped for,” O’Grady continues. “We witnessed a bold and passionate team bring GM’s first major entry into this extraordinary transformation of the auto industry. This was an incredible opportunity to go deep behind the scenes of the development process to discover what it takes to bring a vehicle to life, and to capture this moment in automotive history as it happened.”
Following its debut airing on 27 March, ‘Revolution’ is set to headline the official GMC YouTube channel from 3 April onwards.