GM opens new Pasadena design studio with mid-size GMC Hummer X truck and SUV concepts

General Motors has officially opened a new advanced design studio in Pasadena, California, and used the launch event to unveil a pair of GMC Hummer X concept vehicles, a mid-size electric pickup truck and SUV pair that the company says are designed to explore where future Hummer products could go. The reveal was announced through GMC’s pressroom on May 28, 2026, and GM has been explicit that the Hummer X is a research concept rather than a production-bound program. For Hummer EV customers and prospective buyers, the announcement is meaningful for what it signals about size and packaging. The current Hummer EV pickup and SUV are full-size vehicles that exceed 9,000 pounds in some configurations, which has limited their practical use cases and put them at the heavy end of any street parking. The Hummer X concepts are noticeably smaller in length, width, and height than the current Hummer EV models and reflect GM’s interest in a more compact off-road electric vehicle that could make fewer compromises for mainstream daily driving. A new West Coast home for GM Design The Pasadena studio spans 148,000 square feet across three buildings and is staffed by approximately 100 designers, sculptors, fabricators, and other discipline specialists. The facility supports full-size clay modeling, fabrication, and immersive digital collaboration, and replaces the previous Los Angeles-area footprint with what GM describes as a single integrated campus. Bryan Nesbitt, vice president of global design at GM, framed the location as essential to the work. Nesbitt said Southern California provides what he called an unparalleled canvas of experiences spanning film, art, architecture, aerospace, technology, and topography, and that those influences shape how GM designers think about long-range mobility concepts. Hussein Al Attar has been named director of the Pasadena studio, succeeding Brian Smith, who is returning to the Chevrolet Corvette design team in Michigan after four years leading the Pasadena operation. GM Design has had a Southern California presence for nearly four decades, and the legacy stretches further back through the career of Harley Earl, GM’s first design director, who was born in Hollywood and built custom cars for movie stars before joining the company in 1927. GM established its first permanent advanced design studio in Southern California in the 1980s, and the Pasadena studio joins existing advanced design facilities in Detroit, the United Kingdom, and Shanghai. What the Hummer X concepts actually are The Hummer X concept is built on four pillars: reconfigurability, capability, community, and sustainability. GM has positioned the pair as a testbed for new manufacturing approaches, new aesthetics, and new ways of integrating digital tools into off-road driving rather than as an immediately recognizable preview of the next production Hummer. Both concepts use what the company calls Flex Fab, a flexible metal manufacturing approach that GM compares to small-batch 3D printing for metal rather than to traditional stamping. Because Flex Fab does not require specialized stamping tools for each panel, the same machines can produce multiple body shapes in low volumes. GM says the Hummer X concepts use Flex Fab construction for 57 percent of the body structure. The technique also drives the concept’s visual signature, which features a flat-topped silhouette with radiused edges, laser-welded seams, and exposed precision bolts that the company describes as honest and functional. The Hummer X SUV measures 188.3 inches long, 80 inches wide, and 72.9 inches tall, with a 116-inch wheelbase and 13.2 inches of ground clearance. The pickup is longer at 207.3 inches, with a 130.7-inch wheelbase, the same 80-inch width, a height of 73 inches, and 12.5 inches of ground clearance. The SUV is approved for what GM calls Rock-spec 315/75R18 Goodyear tires with an outside diameter of 37 inches, while the pickup runs Street-spec 305/55R22 Goodyear tires with an outside diameter of 35 inches. Both concepts use 18-inch or 22-inch aluminum wheels with accent inserts, beadlock-style construction, Multimatic shocks, removable fender flares, and substantial underbody protection. By way of comparison, the current production Hummer EV pickup is just over 216 inches long and roughly 87 inches wide, while the production Hummer EV SUV is nearly 197 inches long. The Hummer X concept trims significant length and width from those numbers, putting the SUV near the size of mainstream mid-size off-road SUVs such as the Ford Bronco and the 2026 Jeep Recon, the new Jeep electric off-roader built on Stellantis’ trail-ready EV architecture. Digital tools and the Hummer Hub The interior is designed around stackable digital displays that GM says drivers can reconfigure for specific use cases such as rock crawling, trail running, or highway cruising. Outside the vehicle, GM has detailed a connected services concept called the Hummer Hub, which is described as a suite of applications for planning, sharing, and supporting overland trips. The most attention-grabbing element of the Hummer Hub is the integration of a scout drone that can fly ahead of the vehicle, feed real-time terrain data back to the dashboard, and land and dock itself on the vehicle when not in use. GM has not detailed which sensor or compute hardware would support the system in a production context, although autonomous routing and obstacle detection of that kind would build on the camera and lidar work GM is doing elsewhere across its portfolio. Sustainability story The concepts have been designed around what GM calls mono-materials, meaning components are built from single materials joined by snap fits and mechanical fasteners rather than by adhesives. The company says the approach is intended to allow components to be fully recycled at the end of life and to be easily disassembled and swapped between owners. Seatbacks, headrest backs, and instrument panel ends are made from recycled vehicle fascias, which the team designed as part of a broader circular-economy concept in which customers can share and recirculate parts within a Hummer community. GM has hidden a series of Easter eggs in the concepts. The team’s design mantra of “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” is imprinted in Morse code on the floor, and the tire treads spell out a related phrase: “the courage to get lost leads to new discoveries.” What it signals for production Hummer EVs Concepts are by definition not commitments, and GM has been explicit that the Hummer X is not available for sale. The mid-size dimensions, however, address one of the more consistent criticisms of the current production Hummer EV lineup: that the vehicles are large and heavy enough to be impractical as daily drivers in most North American driving environments. A future production vehicle drawn from this concept would likely sit closer in size to the Rivian R2, the mid-size electric SUV for which Rivian has detailed trims and pricing, and to the new generation of body-on-frame off-road electric pickups being explored across the industry, including the Hyundai Boulder concept that previews the brand’s first body-on-frame pickup truck due by 2030. The Pasadena studio’s primary function is research and concept work, with the goal of pushing GM’s design language and engineering thinking out 10 to 20 years rather than into next year’s product cycle. The Hummer X concepts are intended primarily to validate Flex Fab manufacturing, the modular customization approach, and the connected-vehicle ecosystem rather than to lock in a specific design direction for a near-term production vehicle. GM has not announced timing, pricing, or production intentions for any vehicle inspired by the concept, although the focus on mid-size off-road electric vehicles is consistent with a broader industry shift away from the largest and heaviest first-generation electric trucks. Hummer X gallery Aerial ¾ view of the GMC HUMMER X SUV concept in the color Genesis with the soft top in the color Bahia Orange with the desert in the backgroundFront ¾ view of the GMC HUMMER X Pickup concept in the color Tigerlily driving in motion through a tunnel.Internal view of GMC HUMMER X Pickup showcasing stackable displays