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, 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