Hummer (make of car)

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The brand's logo
All Hummer models, from left: H3, H1, and H2

Hummer ( American [ ˈhʌmɚ ]) was an American off-road vehicle brand of General Motors . From 1992 to 2010 civil versions of the military vehicle High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) were produced.

History of the Hummer brand

Hummer H2 SUT
Hummer H2
Hummer H3
Hummer HX Concept

The Hummer brand originally consisted of only one model (which only received the model designation H1 in 2003), which was developed and produced by the AM General Corporation . AM General also developed the ancestor of all Hummer, the military HMMWV (Humvee) , for the US Army and has been building it since 1985 until today.

The company had been planning to sell a civilian version of the Humvees since the late 1980s. In 1990, AM General had two identical white Hummers compete in the London to Peking Motor Challenge , a rally across the streets of the former Soviet Union in which the starting field usually consists mainly of classic automobiles. The two Hummers made the ride with ease, and highlights of the rally aired on ESPN in the United States . However, this event was dwarfed by the public attention the HMMWV received in the following year for its coverage of its services during the Second Gulf War .

In 1992, AM General began selling a civil version of the M998 HMMWV under the Hummer brand . In 1999, AM General sold the brand name to General Motors (GM) but continued to produce the vehicles that GM then resold. In the following years, GM presented two in-house models under the Hummer brand, the H2 and the H3. In addition, the original Hummer has since been sold as the H1. AM General continued to manufacture the H2 for GM, production of the H1 was discontinued in 2006 and GM only sold remnants after that. The H3 was manufactured by GM in Shreveport .

From 2004, Hummer was sold internationally through selected importers and distributors in Europe and other markets. Although only small numbers were sold, the Hummer was so popular that Australian importers switched to converting the H3 to right-hand drive - even though GM did not officially sell the brand in Australia. From 2006, GM also manufactured the Hummer H3 in its South African plant in Port Elizabeth . The H3 produced there were intended for the South African market and for export to other countries with left-hand traffic, such as Australia, Great Britain and Japan.

According to media reports, on June 2, 2009, GM found a buyer for the Hummer brand with the Chinese special machine manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery and concluded a preliminary agreement for a sale in the third quarter of 2009. The company headquarters should remain in the USA and 3000 jobs should be secured . The sale was delayed several times due to the lack of approval from the Chinese government. Experts suspected that the government refused to approve it because of the high fuel consumption. The fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of the Hummer vehicles stand in contrast to China's current goals to reduce environmental pollution and also to move the domestic automotive industry to more environmentally friendly vehicles. So the sale ultimately failed, and GM announced on February 24, 2010 that it would cease production of the Hummer and liquidate the brand. In 2011 the Spaniard Carlos Enrique Costa Jr. wanted to buy the brand, but this failed because GM no longer wanted to sell the licenses for Hummer.

H2 long version from Krystal, stretched

Media presence and criticism

The media coverage of the Hummer models is very high. For example, the CSI: Miami series was supplied with lobsters.

Without differentiating between the individual models, the Hummer off-road vehicles, with an actual fuel consumption of up to 30 liters per 100 kilometers in the standard version, are today often viewed as a symbol of oversized and environmentally harmful automobiles. With up to 470 g CO 2 per kilometer, the vehicles achieve maximum values ​​for series-production cars. As an alternative, some workshops offer the installation of General Motors own Duramax turbodiesel engines with improved consumption values ​​and outputs from 220 to 590 kW.

In May 2008, the brand's sales figures fell by over 60% compared to the same month last year, or from 4636 to just 1843 vehicles. The smallest H3 is still in the best position, as the only model that has "only" halved its sales. GM therefore questioned the existence of the brand at this point in time. In the spring of 2010, the last examples of the lobster finally rolled off the assembly line.

In the 2017 Tatort episode “ Fang Shot ”, the German name “Hummer” was re-Anglicized when Professor Börne announced his new car (a white Hummer) with the words: “I ordered the Lobster with a differential lock.”

During the commercial break in the Super Bowls on February 2, 2020, the GMC Hummer EV was presented to the public as a battery-electric vehicle. The vehicle is said to offer 1,000 hp with 15,000 Nm of torque (presumably measured on the wheels) and an acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour (96.6 km / h) in 3.0 seconds. The official presentation should take place on May 20, 2020 at GM's Hamtramck plant , where production of up to 80,000 pieces per year should also take place. The market launch is planned for 2021. Competitors in this market segment are the Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian R1S .

Hummer brand models

construction time model Power kW / PS image Brief description
1992 to 2006 Hummer H1 110–221 kW /
150–300 hp		 Hummer H1 mud 1.jpg First model of the brand, technically largely identical to the military vehicle HMMWV . Until the introduction of the H2, Hummer was used as a model name, from then on the model was renamed H1.
2003 to 2010 Hummer H2 235.7–291.9 kW /
320–397 hp		 Hummer H2 front view.jpg With the introduction of this model, the term Hummer changed from a model name to a brand name.
2005 to 2010 Hummer H3 180–224 kW /
245–295 hp		 2007 Hummer H3 - NHTSA.jpg Third and smallest model.

Web links

Commons : Hummer Automobile  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hummer goes to China ( Memento June 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Financial Times Deutschland , June 3, 2009
  2. ↑ GM can't get rid of Hummer either , Handelsblatt , February 24, 2010 (accessed February 24, 2010)
  3. ↑ http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.print.GMCOM.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/Feb/0224_hummer
  4. ↑ Fuel guzzlers: The lobster dies ( Memento from March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 21, 2006
  5. ↑ Klimasünder , Spiegel Online , March 21, 2007
  6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hummerservice.com
  7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.predatorinc.com
  8. ↑ https://www.heise.de/autos/artikel/GM-steller-Konzernmarke-Hummer-zur-Disposition-475915.html
  9. ↑ Awesome comeback with 1,000 electric horsepower
Timeline of the Hummer models from 1992 to 2010
1990s 2000s 2010s
1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 0 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 0 1
Hummer H1
Hummer H2
Hummer H3