AM General, the maker of the military Humvee and civilian HUMMER H2, announced today that retired General Paul Kern will take over as President and COO effective August 1st. Previously that post was held by James Armour, who will remain the company’s CEO.
Kern, who served in Vietnam and the first Gulf War, will eventually take over the CEO position near the end of 2009, and serve as company chairman through 2011.
Source: Chicago Tribune
While GM’s top brass are determining HUMMER’s fate, the HX concept is off making new friends in Britain. Reviews have been relatively positive from the British International Auto Show, similar to U.S. press coverage of the new vehicle. The HUMMER HX concept runs on FlexFuel, and may even achieve fuel economy close to 30 mpg.
HUMMER’s showcase of the HX is a little bittersweet. On one hand, it’s good to see HUMMER still promoting the brand to its full extent. On the other, it’s very possible that they’re only using the HX display to show potential buyers there’s still interest in the iconic brand.
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Here in the United States, it isn’t uncommon to see women customizing their own vehicles. However in the Middle East, it’s apparently far less common and HUMMER is doing their part to make it easier for women buyers to have a custom vehicle that is ‘like nothing else.’
“HUMMER H3 ‘Paint me with your dream color’ campaign gives the power to our female customers who want their vehicle to be different from others,” says Johnny Amiouni of HUMMER at General Motors Middle East. “We are delighted to provide them with a car that not just meet their needs but also fulfills their desire to be different.”
Hummer H3s are available in 10 different custom colors like ‘Tough Cookie Lilac’ and ‘Side Kick Pink,’ and can even include interior enhancements like color-matched seat backs and console pieces.
GM would undoubtedly ruffle a few feathers in the faithful U.S. HUMMER community with a promotion like this, but HUMMER Middle East is showing a nearly 30% increase in 2008 over 2007 sales.
Earlier this year, HUMMER and Tread Lightly formed a partnership that supports trail maintenance and cleanup activities to promote responsible off road driving. Their latest project lands the two groups in the Sierra National Forest – specifically, the Bald Mountain off-highway vehicle trail in California.
If you’d like to volunteer for this great opportunity, check out our FourWheeler.com for specific information.
In this morning’s announcement from GM Headquarters in Detroit, CEO Rick Wagoner laid out his plan to provide 15 billion in necessary funds by the end of 2009. There were two areas discussed, both operational changes and asset sales such as brands and real estate.
Operational changes included decreasing truck capacity by another 150,000 units from their original cuts announced June 3rd. President and COO Fritz Henderson told reporters after the conference that specifics of those cuts were not being announced today, saying it would only be appropriate to tell those affected like workers and unions first. Other operational changes include slashing the motorsports/promotions budget, reducing salary costs by 20%, and delaying all next generation truck, SUV, and V8 design spending. This isn’t all surprising given older news about the next generation HUMMERs.
Wagoner continued on to the second half of his announcement about their ‘broad assessment’ of sales or modifications to its assets, but remained very vague on any details. He confirmed that HUMMER is the only brand currently under “strategic review” and the only brand currently being considered for sale, and that GM “is continuing to focus on profit improvement initiatives” across all other channels. When asked by a reporter if there was any interest in the HUMMER brand so far, Wagoner said, “Yes, we’ve received a lot of interest,” but would not elaborate at this time.
The operational changes were the big story today – with the budget being cut for motorsports, we’ll let you know what that means for Team HUMMER.
General Motors will soon be announcing its plan to “align business to current market conditions.” That single quote is all that GM has given, which has really begun some speculation. Due to the lack of details, it is uncertain if GM will even talk about HUMMER — but we’re betting that there’s at least mention, and maybe more. The announcement will be made to dealers and GM employees tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM ET, followed by a press conference at 9:00. We’ll be listening in to CEO Rick Wagoner’s address, and will bring you updates as soon as we know more.
Until then, here’s some speculation from around the web:
Alex from Autoblog: “The fact that GM is being so nebulous leads us to believe that this will be a significant announcement. Is a brand getting killed? Could we hear of a particular vehicle line getting scrapped? Are there going to be more closings? Will we hear that something new is getting greenlit, like the Chevy Beat?”
John from the Wall Street Journal: “’This is real, hard stuff,’ one person briefed on the plan said. ‘It not only assures our survival, but will make us a radically leaner, more focused company with much lower fixed cost.’”
AM General’s plant in which they produce the HUMMER H2 for General Motors may soon be pumping out yet another iconic vehicle. VPG Autos is ironing out the last few details with AM General to produce a brand new vehicle called the Standard Taxi. According to AM General spokesperson Craig Mac Nab, the agreement is contingent upon VPG Autos securing proper financing. If the deal goes through, production is scheduled to begin next year.
“Our groundbreaking agreement with AM General will benefit owners, operators, drivers, and the riding public. We looked at several manufacturing possibilities over the past year and we chose AM General because of its excellence in building vehicles and its vast experience in procuring parts and vehicle components, engineering and validation processes, service parts logistics, maintenance planning, warranty service and administration, and launch of production vehicles.” – VPG Autos
When speaking with reporters, Mac Nab said it was too early to tell if this would mean additional jobs at the HUMMER H2 plant. He also dismissed concerns that the military HUMVEE may be replaced. “Humvee production is ongoing, and it should be for a long time.” However he did not discuss GM’s strategic review of the HUMMER brand, other than to say nothing has been announced.
Production of 2009 H2s is scheduled to begin this week with no plans of extended shut downs. This is somewhat surprising since what will soon be GM’s only plant producing full-size SUVs (The Escalade, Tahoe, and Yukon factory in Texas) is shutting down for a total of 8 weeks between now and the end of the year due to decreased demand according to a factory spokesperson.
AM General has to be concerned with the outcome of HUMMER’s strategic review, which would explain their continued effort to find alternate uses for its plant specifically designed to make H2s.
HUMMER told its dealers today that it will sell the H3T pickup truck for less than its H3 SUV counterpart. The 2009 HUMMER H3T Pickup will start at $31,495, a full $850 less than the SUV. With General Motors raising prices an average of 3.5% across the board, this is a welcome sign to HUMMER and pickup truck buyers. On other models, GM explains the increase in price is due to product enhancements like Bluetooth capability, upgraded OnStar features, and powertrain upgrades. GM says rising fuel prices, as well as the weakening U.S. Dollar, have also impacted 2009 pricing.
Forbes and MSNBC have ranked the worst vehicle polluters on the planet, and VW and Jeep took the top spots. The rankings excluded some models like Ferrari and Lamborghini, but include the relatively low-volume HUMMER H2, which is shown to pollute less than the Volkswagon Touareg TDI, Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD, and three diesel-powered Mercedes SUVs included in the study.
Compared to the H2, there are far more Touareg TDI and Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD models on the road – which multiplies their already larger carbon footprint that much higher. So why then, does the HUMMER H2 get the negative publicity when there are much more common and worse polluters on the road?
In some ways, it may be a hollow victory for HUMMER’s marketing and design teams. If HUMMERs weren’t so widely known and recognized by anyone over the age of 2, they wouldn’t be such an easy target. Another reason is that so many media outlets have stereotyped the HUMMER to be the worst polluters, people have actually come to accept it has truth.
We’ve decided to help the mainstream media improve their accuracy by substituting “VW Touareg TDI” instead of “HUMMER” in these articles, since the intent of these stories was to shine light on a heavy polluter. If they wanted the most impact, they should have gone with the vehicle with the most impact, right?
Would You Like a Gas Guzzler With That? - New York Times
“Not surprisingly, environmental groups are appalled. Brendan Bell, an energy policy analyst at the Sierra Club, says that VW Touareg TDIs in Happy Meals are about as responsible as “dipping a Big Mac in the fry oil and serving it to your kids.”
Who’s paying VW Touareg TDI gas bills? - LA Times
“More than one reader has asked whether taxpayers are getting stuck with the tab when Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for Transportation Jaime de la Vega fills up his VW Touareg TDI. Last time I checked, the answer was no. If anyone at City Hall knows differently, feel free to weigh in.”
Earlier today the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors is getting ready to slash thousands of white-collar jobs, and may be considering shedding a brand or two beyond HUMMER. Citing those close to top GM Executives, WSJ reported that discussion about the total number of brands has intensified in the last few weeks. Those same sources claimed that “nothing is off the table,” apart from Cadillac and Chevrolet, which GM considers its core brands.
Bloomberg later published GM’s rebuttal of the WSJ article of ‘no comment’ on the job cuts, and added that HUMMER is the only GM brand currently up for ‘strategic review.’ The truth, more than likely, is somewhere in between.
If GM was run by a bunch of buffoons, I may believe there hasn’t been a single discussion among top executives about reducing the overall product lineup. After all, GM’s closest competitor for the crown of world’s largest automaker is Toyota who has only three brands, compared to GM’s eight. But GM is run by some pretty smart people, so we’ll assume the complete denial of any restructuring conversations was just the PR department caught off guard.
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