Filed under: SUV, Truck, Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Hummer, Off-Road

General Motors has already begun turning the lights off at its Hummer brand, though that may be no fault of multiple potential buyers. We’re not just talking interested parties from China here, either. According to brand enthusiast website HummerGuy, several American-based companies have expressed viable interest in snapping up the SUV-slinging manufacturer over the past few months. Even more surprisingly, all of the potential offers have reportedly fallen on deaf ears.

Both Raser Technologies and Electric Motors Corporation have supposedly made The General offers worth considering, and GM has left them unanswered. These whispers haven’t just been crawling around the web – they’ve evidently made their way all the way to Illinois Senator Roland Burris (above), who has promised to look into the matter himself.

While we’d be thoroughly surprised if such an investigation had any repercussions, we have to wonder why GM would say no both of the EV builders unless it thinks it can make more money winding down the brand by selling off tooling and manufacturing rights, or perhaps just avoiding bureaucratic headaches. Some experts believe GM might be worried about competition from future extended-range EVs, but we have a hard time imagining one of the world’s biggest manufacturers losing sleep over a couple of startups. Either way, as with Saab before it, there remains a sliver of hope for the brand, but we certainly wouldn’t bet on another eleventh-hour miracle.

[Source: HummerGuy | Image: Burris.senate.gov]

Report: Senator to investigate GM’s handling of Hummer deal originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Senator to investigate GM’s handling of Hummer deal

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Hummer, Earnings/Financials, Event Alert, Off-Road

Not so fast, Captain Planet. Hummer may be on its last leg at the moment, but fans of the brand aren’t going to let their favorite earth-roaming SUVs go down without a fight. Capital & Labor International Coalition, a newly-minted organization, thinks it has all the answers to the brand’s woes, and has scheduled a summit to help save Hummer here in the states on April 11.

This assemblage could be more than just a few fans with posters. CLIC has invited everyone from shareholders to Hummer’s CEO and United Auto Workers leaders. Thane Ritchie, chairman of the organization, said CLIC has taken a good hard look at the General Motors/Hummer issue and there may be another option out there other than just turning off the lights for good.

Members of the group have even invited Senator Rolland Burris (D-Illinois) to help out as well. Burris will be acting as a liaison between the coalition and the federal government, especially when it comes to getting any aid for the brand. In the meantime, the Save Hummer in America rally will be held next week in Chicago. Hey, it worked for Saab, right?

[Source: Automobile]

Report: Chicago-area ‘Save Hummer’ rally planned for April 11 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Chicago-area ‘Save Hummer’ rally planned for April 11

Filed under: SUV, Government/Legal, GM, Hummer, Off-Road

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, General Motors is taking a second look at two previous offers for Hummer after the deal to sell the ailing sports utility brand finally succumbed to a slow death yesterday.

The WSJ doesn’t divulge which companies are in the offing to purchase Hummer, only saying that GM had rejected offers from the two firms last year.

The original deal to offload the brand onto China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery for $150 million was apparently rejected by the Chinese government, although the reason for the rejection is still in question.

It’s hard not draw comparisons to the Saab saga that played out over the course of the last year, with GM finally selling the brand to Spyker after prolonged negotiations. Then again, we could have a Pontiac or Saturn situation on our hands, with Hummer set to go the way of the Dodo if a deal isn’t reached within the next few months.

[Source: Wall Street Journal - Sub. Req. | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Report: General Motors looking at two previous Hummer offers originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: General Motors looking at two previous Hummer offers

Filed under: SUV, China, Government/Legal, GM, Hummer, Earnings/Financials, Off-Road

As readily illustrated by the dramatic and protracted sale of Saab to Spyker – a process that itself is not yet concluded – it’s clear that extracting brands from General Motors is a time-intensive process. No surprise, then, that GM and Chinese manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery have reportedly decided to extend the deadline on a Hummer sale until month’s end.

The two companies have been working to sew everything up on the SUV brand deal since it was first announced last October, but the original deadline expired yesterday without a resolution. According to the AFP, the holdup actually stems from the fact that the sale needs to get approval from Chinese regulators, an issue that has been noted before. As you may recall, China’s commerce ministry previously went on record as saying that they hadn’t received an application for approval from Tengzhong, and it is just one of the Chinese government agencies that need to sign off on the deal.

In a related news, Reuters notes that Suo Lang Duo Ji, a Chinese entrepreneur considered to be the mastermind behind the tie-up, hopes that the Hummer deal can be completed by this spring, an admission that could suggest that further extensions could be in the cards.

[Sources: Just-Auto, Reuters | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Report: GM, Tengzhong extend Hummer sale deadline until end of February originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: GM, Tengzhong extend Hummer sale deadline until end of February

Filed under: SUV, China, Crossover, GM, Hummer

As the Opel transaction takes on Biblical intrigue, the Hummer exchange goes on in another dark corner, laboriously, like the gestation of an elephant. The latest report from a Chinese news website states that General Motors and Tengzhong “might sign an agreement” this week, but that strikes us as exceedingly optimistic seeing that there’s been no word on the government approving the deal yet.

Slightly more believable are the supposed deal points that would guide Tengzhong’s initial ownership of Hummer: Tengzhong will own all of Hummer’s intellectual property rights and sales network, but would not build Hummers in China and would operate the company as an off-shore entity based out of Detroit or Nashville. General Motors would continue to build Hummers until 2012 and provide “technical services,” and Tengzhong would continue to fund research and development, while the “off-shore” Hummer team (read: probably the folks doing the job now) would be responsible for launching the new H3 and H4. As for that H4, though, the article lists them as “CUV models.” If the H4 is a CUV, we hope they manage to make it look like the 2008 Hummer HX concept shown above.

Tengzhong reps are headed to Detroit to continue discussions. The General’s response, according to the CEO of Hummer is that “Negotiations continue to progress and the transaction will be announced upon the signing of the definitive agreement as soon as appropriate.” Hat tip to Emilio!

[Source: Gasgoo]

Potential deal points leaked concerning Tengzhong’s purchase of Hummer originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Potential deal points leaked concerning Tengzhong’s purchase of Hummer