AM General
| AM General
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|---|---|
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| legal form | LLC |
| Seat | South Bend , United States |
| Branch | Vehicle construction, military |
| Website | AM General |
AM General LLC is an American manufacturer of commercial , military and passenger vehicles .
The company, based in South Bend , Indiana , is best known today as the developer and manufacturer of the military vehicle HMMWV and the civilian offshoot Hummer H1 . In addition to the HMMWV, the company produced the Hummer H2 SUV for General Motors in its only plant in Mishawaka . The production of the Hummer H1 was stopped in June 2006, that of the H2 in 2010.
AM General also provides spare parts and maintenance training for all products, as well as technical support and spare parts for military vehicles other than the HMMWV (e.g. for M1 Abrams ).
Company history
The origins of AM General can be traced back to Studebaker's "General Products Division" , which was bought by Kaiser Industries along with lucrative armaments contracts when Studebaker withdrew from the automotive industry in 1966. In 1970 Kaiser also withdrew from the automotive industry, and American Motors Corporation (AMC) acquired Kaiser-Jeep from Kaiser Industries . In 1971 AMC converted the "General Products Division" into the subsidiary AM General Corporation . The intention behind this was to give AM General the independence it needed to reliably carry out government contracts for commercial vehicles. AM General manufactured buses, trucks, and off-road vehicles for the military, government, and commercial customers.
In 1979, AM General began developing a suitable 1.25 ton multi- purpose off-road vehicle on behalf of the US Army to replace the M151 and other light, unarmored wheeled vehicles. After delivering test vehicles in 1981, the company began series production of the HMMWV in 1983 .
After AMC was bought by Renault in 1982 , AMC had to cede the AM General Corporation because US government regulations forbade the placing of arms contracts with companies owned by foreign governments - the French government was part owner of Renault at the time. In 1983, AM General was therefore bought up by LTV Corporation and run as a wholly-owned subsidiary of LTV Aerospace and Defense Company. In 1984 the AM General headquarters were relocated from the American Motors AMTEK Building to Livonia , and two years later to South Bend, where the main manufacturing plant was located.
In 1989, AM General stopped the remaining activities in the field of commercial light trucks and closed the plant on Chippewa Avenue (South Bend), which Studebaker took over in 1964 by the predecessor company Kaiser-Jeep. In 1990 the office buildings were relocated from Chippewa Avenue to downtown South Bend, where they have been since then.
The HMMWV enjoyed great popularity among US soldiers during the military action in Panama (1989-90) and especially during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Around 20,000 HMMWV were in use in Iraq. The public awareness of the military vehicle during these military operations encouraged AM General to manufacture a variant of the vehicle, called the Hummer , which had been converted for the civilian market in 1992 .
In 1999, AM General formed the subcontractor General Engine Products LLC (GEP) and established a new facility in Franklin, Ohio to produce 6.5 liter diesel engines . The engines are sold to General Motors and other customers and used for AM General vehicles.
In December 1999, AM General and General Motors signed an agreement on a joint production, marketing and sales policy for the Hummer. GM took over the world exclusive rights to the brand name Hummer and renamed the vehicle Hummer to Hummer H1. In 2002, AM General began manufacturing the Hummer H2 SUV developed by GM in a new factory in Mishawaka. In June 2006 production of the Hummer H1 was stopped, the H2 continued to be produced for GM until 2010. AM General used the production capacities freed up as a result to produce the HMMWV.
In 2002, AM General changed its business form to a limited liability company (llc.). In August 2004, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings and the Renco Group announced the formation of a community of owners with the aim of acquiring AM General LLC . In 2007, AM General and General Dynamics Land Systems founded the General Tactical Vehicles joint venture to respond to the tender by the US Army and the Marine Corps for the development of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), which is intended to partially replace the HMMWV in the two armed forces. In 2010, AM General delivered the last 2,600 Humvees to the US Army, completing its total requirement of 150,000 HMMWVs.
From spring 2015 to September 2017, AM General produced the Mercedes-Benz R-Class as a contract manufacturer .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tom Vanden Brook: Hulking, tough MRAP displaces Humvee ( English ) USA Today. March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
- ↑ Jens Meiners / Christian Otto: AM General manufactures the R-Class . January 27, 2015. Accessed November 27, 2015.
- ↑ End after twelve years: Daimler discontinues the Mercedes R-Class. Retrieved July 22, 2018 .