Ah, the perks of being a celebrity. The world’s top basketball player took to social media to show off his new whip, flexing a subtle feature of his car that car nuts will go nuts for.
When you’re rich and famous, you just get offered things we mere mortals don’t, like rare off-catalogue watches or matching suits for you and your boo for a red carpet ‘do.
In LeBron James‘ case, it’s a free GMC Hummer EV worth around AU$150,000. That’s right. Hummer makes electric cars now. But more on just how ridiculous this car is later.
What’s particularly impressive about LeBron’s Hummer is its vehicle identification number, or VIN, of which he shared a close-up photo on Instagram. Also sometimes called a chassis number or frame number, a VIN is a unique 17-character code, including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual cars.
The VIN for LeBron’s Hummer ends in 00006 – meaning it’s only the 6th example of this car to ever be produced. It’s a niche flex, but it’s something car guys really care about. We don’t know if we ought to give LeBron props or laugh at such a strange move.
Billed as “the world’s first zero-emissions, zero limits all-electric supertruck,” the GMC Hummer EV represents a rather genius revival of the Hummer brand. With a claimed 0-60mph time of 3 seconds, four-wheel steering, up to 16 inches of ground clearance and even waterproof underbody cameras that can help you pick the best line when navigating a trail, the Hummer EV is designed to be a tough, no-compromise off-roader.
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One of the biggest problem electric cars have faced – particularly in America – is that they’re seen by many men as somehow not manly. The biggest problem the original Hummers had was that they were considered phony; a poser’s vehicle with none of the off-road capability of the Humvees it was inspired by while still having just as poor fuel economy.
The new Hummer EV solves both those problems. Not only is it actually good off-road, but it’s not going to kill the planet whilst you drive it. Get the greatest basketball player of all time to sell it, too? GM knows what they’re doing.
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