Filed under: SEMA Show, SUV, Hummer, Off-Road

Zero South, a company that popped up at SEMA in 2008, is back again with its Biodiesel Electric Hummer. The heavily modified H1 rides on tracks at all four corners – a necessary modification, since this Hummer is designed for an expedition to the South Pole.

The trip is going to be documented by Chris Paine, who’s best known for the film Who Killed the Electric Car? It was reported back in 2008 that the vehicle was going to be driven by Buzz Aldrin and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The film is called Drive Around the World and was shot in 3D. Drive Around the World is also the name of an organization that works to inspire an urge to explore while raising money for various charities. The H1 shown above is Zero South’s vehicle for participating in these expeditions.

The Zero South Biodiesel Electric Hummer was originally setup to run on B99 fuel, but Jay Leno joined the team and modified the powertrain so that a four-cylinder diesel Volkswagen engine would act as a generator to four electric motors. Each motor would then provide power to the individual track it’s coupled to. It’s one heck of a Hummer, and we invite you to check it out for yourself in the gallery below.

Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL

SEMA 2010: Zero South Biodiesel Electric Hummer shows its guts originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEMA 2010: Zero South Biodiesel Electric Hummer shows its guts

Filed under: SUV, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Hummer

Would the last one out the door please switch off the lights? The long strange trip that has been the Hummer brand is just about over for General Motors. The final ever production H3 rolled out of GM’s Shreveport, Louisiana factory on Monday May 24, 2010 on its way to an Avis rental car outlet. As you may recall, GM had actually stopped assembling H3s in mid-2009 as it went through bankruptcy, but it resumed production recently in order to fill an 849 unit special order.

GM tried to sell the Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co., Ltd but the deal ultimately fell apart last February. A subsequent offer from Raser Technologies also went nowhere. Now that production has ceased, 200 of the 900 remaining employees at Shreveport will be laid off by July and the rest of the Hummer staff back at headquarters in Detroit is either leaving or being reassigned.

[Source: The Car Connection]

Turn Out the Lights: Final Hummer H3 rolls off the line… for Avis originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turn Out the Lights: Final Hummer H3 rolls off the line… for Avis

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Recalls, GM, Hummer

General Motors has just announced a sizeable recall on Hummer H3 models manufactured between 2006 and 2010. According to Consumer Reports, the vehicles have defective hood louvers that could come loose over time and detach from the vehicle while driving. The tabs that hold the louvers in place have been found to break, causing vibration that can lead to total separation.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is warning H3 owners to be on the lookout for any vibration of the louver assembly, as that may be an indicator that a failure is likely. A total of 162,000 Hummers are covered under the recall, and General Motors says that technicians will apply an adhesive in order to keep the louvers from coming loose at no cost. Owners may contact Hummer at 800-732-5493 or visit the NHTSA recall site for more information.

[Source: NHTSA via Consumer Reports]

GM recalls 163k Hummer H3 models for hood issue originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 May 2010 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM recalls 163k Hummer H3 models for hood issue

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: Motorsports, Hummer, Off-Road

Team Miller Fisher has crossed the finish line of the Rallye A?cha des Gazelles – in a Hummer H3 driven off a Parisian dealer’s lot – and battled from 51st to 12th out of 98 teams after a mistake on the first leg. The Rallye A?cha, a six-stage trek through the desert, allows no use of GPS, no pace notes, no cell phones, and no binoculars. Pilots and co-pilots find their way between checkpoints with maps, compasses and pencils, and whoever completes the journey in the shortest distance, wins.

The race was made even harder this year by using not the 1:100,000-scale maps of years past, but scraps of paper with increasingly less route information as the race went on. Olympic skier and co-pilot Wendy Fisher wrote to say, “This continues to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. An unbelievably tough event. Days were SO long, almost impossible to get all of the checkpoints.”

Emily Miller noted, “We are happy with where we finished but we really would have love to end up in the top 10 and we lost that on our first day with navigation errors. The H3 did GREAT! Everybody loved the truck, it was the best stock truck we could have asked for and are grateful to HUMMER France for giving us the opportunity to drive it.” To Team Miller Fisher and all of the winners and competitors in the three classes we say: Way. To. Go.

[Source: Hummer]
Photos courtesy of Dan Campell-Lloyd

Team Miller Fisher finishes the 20th Anniversary Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Team Miller Fisher finishes the 20th Anniversary Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles

Filed under: Car Buying, SUV, Hummer, Military, Off-Road

You’ve heard of art imitating life? Well how about life imitating war? That’s another story entirely, but not so far fetched when it comes to the Hummer. The sport-’ute that met the public eye during Operation Desert Storm has all but completely gone through its entire life cycle in the intervening years: first as a military-only vehicle, the original model became available to the public, then GM bought the rights and started churning out pickup-based H2s and H3s, the U.S. armed forces went back Iraq, the original H1 was discontinued and now GM is preparing to wind down the brand entirely. But not before one last pistol-shootin’ hoorah, courtesy of the one dealership that arguably sees the truck for what it is more than any other: Lynch Hummer.

The St. Louis-area franchise made headlines last year when they started filling their emptying showroom with gun racks, selling firearms to make up for dwindling sales in the gigantic SUVs. Now the dealership is connecting the dots with a one-of-a-kind promotion: Buy a Hummer, get a free shotgun.

The Browning Citori White Lightning is worth $2,000, and one will be given away with each purchase of a new Hummer. Fortunately, the same legal measures apply to the promotion as they would to anyone buying a new firearm, but if you’re looking for a one-stop shop to jump-start your own private militia, Lynch Hummer is clearly the place. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Lynch Hummer]

Continue reading Out With A Bang: Hummer dealer giving away free shotgun with every new vehicle purchase

Out With A Bang: Hummer dealer giving away free shotgun with every new vehicle purchase originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Out With A Bang: Hummer dealer giving away free shotgun with every new vehicle purchase

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, GM, Hummer, Earnings/Financials, Off-Road

Although it has been evident for some time that General Motors‘ sale of its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co., Ltd., we didn’t expect for word to come down today that the negotiations are dead and the brand will be wound down. Unfortunately, judging by a press release just issued by GM, that’s exactly what will be happening. According to John Smith, GM’s vice president of corporate planning and alliances,

“One year ago, General Motors announced that we were going to divest Hummer, as part of focusing our efforts on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac going forward. We have since considered a number of possibilities for Hummer along the way, and we are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed.”

As we learned from the Saab sale saga, GM announcing that the brand will be wound down does not completely extinguish hope for another buyer to slip in in the 11th hour, but it does seem highly improbable that a new party will pick up where the negotiations with China’s Tengzhong left off.

In the statement available after the jump, GM does not specify what killed the planned sale of the brand, but rumors in recent months suggested that the Chinese government was not keen to sign off on the deal. At the moment, it is unclear what will happen to Hummer’s H2 and H3/H3T models, but it is likely that the tooling and manufacturing rights will be sold off to other companies. It is also unclear how many employees will be out of work as a result of the closure.

As with the wind-down of its Saturn and Pontiac brands, GM has pledged to honor Hummer warranties and continue to supply service and parts.

[Source: General Motors | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Continue reading BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down

BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down

Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, China, Videos, Hummer, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Smart, Citroën, Australia, Middle East

This slightly belated Weekender is extra full of the week’s car news, starting off with a union of cars and alcohol that only Aussies would think of putting together. In the opposite hemisphere but the same corner, reporters with China’s Caixing news site take an uncharacteristically critical look at BYD and find suspect claims and institutionalized corporate cloning that has made its CEO and Warren Buffet even richer. Back on this side, Smart hasn’t lost its relevance, just its place in people’s minds, so it’s using hot dogs to try and get its mojo back while Citro?n uses John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe. And when is a model car not a model car, when does an AMG float, and where in the world do you use an H2 to tow a snowplow out of the snow? The answers are right after the jump…

Continue reading Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition

Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition