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GM's Hummer Brand To Be Sold To a Chinese Company
An anonymous reader writes in to note that GM will sell its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. of China, a little-known industrial firm. For now, the deal will save 3,000 jobs in the US. (The military HumVees are made by a separate company and are not involved in this deal.) "As part of the deal, some GM plants will continue to build the Hummer brand for the new owner, at least for awhile. The company said its Shreveport, La., plant will keep building Hummers for the new owner until at least 2010. ... GM said it sold 5,013 Hummers worldwide in the first quarter, down 62% from the 13,050 that it sold in the same period the prior year." AP coverage has more details on GM's planned divestitures, including the shedding of Pontiac, Saturn, and Saab.
Military Humvees are made by AM General, who sold the rights to the civilian versions back in 99 to GM I believe. This won't affect the military production lines in Indiana.
From what I'm told, AM General makes the HumVee, which for the original Hummer, was sold to GM as-is (well, a stripped down version anyhow). GM then painted them, added luxuries and such and then sold them to the public. That's why the H2 and H3 were so different compared to the original H1 - GM does not own the design of the H1 at all - they merely resold the hardware after some modifications. The H2 and H3 were original GM designs.
So no, the Chinese are not getting military information out of it, other than perhaps how to add leather seats and cupholders to an existing H1.
Don't forget the other modifications from the Tahoe. You know, the extra weight, woeful aerodynamics and awful use of interior space. It's kind of like an inverse-Tardis, it's smaller on the inside than it looks on the outside.
sustainable living
The H1 was built by AM General, who makes the military HMMWV on which the H1 is based. Of the current models, the H2 is built by AM General under contract from GM (its a GM design, based on the same platform as the Yukon and Tahoe) in Indiana. The H3 (based on a different GM platform) is built in Louisiana and South Africa as you describe.
The H2 and H2 are HMMV-styled bodies on standard GMC truck frames and running gear.
Here in Mexico City, driving a Hummer is considered an admission of being a drug-dealer or a politician (or both, if you know what I mean...)
No sig for the moment.
A company close to where I work will rent you a stretched version, a bit like a limo.
The company that imported them into the UK has apparently stopped doing it, after one *fell apart* going over a bump. The normal chassis is barely up to the job, and splicing in an extra metre doesn't help.
H2 = GMC Jimmy AKA Chevy Tahoe chassis
H3 = GMC Envoy AKA Chevy Trailblazer chassis
Ya well people just want something to be stupid and patriotic about I guess. With the multi-national nature of the world these days, it gets rather silly to identify a company as a given nationality anyhow. Like Intel for example. It is an American company in that it is headquartered in the US and started there. Ok, but that isn't the only place its operations are. You can very well buy an Intel chip that was designed in the US, fabricated in Ireland, packaged in Costa Rica, and then sold in Canada. They've got various parts of their operation all over. While most of their fabs are in the US (one is in Ireland, two in Israel, 12 in the US) all their packaging and testing centres are outside the US. Likewise their R&D are in the US, but also Israel, China, Korea, Russia and so on.
So is Intel really an "American" company? They really seem more global.
They are not alone in this. That's how many major companies work. As you noted, the Japanese car makers are heavily producing in America these days. Makes a lot of sense, there are skilled workers, lots of land, good natural resources and a large consumer base. Why spend the money shipping the things over from Japan is they are mostly sold in the US? For that matter, some lines are completely produces in the US, even the ones sold in Japan.
While I understand the desire to protect American jobs, that doesn't mean the company has to be headquarted in America. There are American companies that produce nothing in the US, and their are foreign companies that produce lots in the US. Really they are all global companies and their country of origin is largely incidental.
Before reading your comment, I didn't really know anything about the lend-lease act. It was one of those terms I had heard, but didn't know the specifics of. Your comment prompted me to do some reading (wikipedia). And I think I can say that without a doubt you don't know what you're talking about (assuming the information on Lend-Lease is accurate at the time I read it).
From the article:
And further:
So, technically the lend-lease act was not in any way any sort of drain on British coffers (quite the reverse actually). Now, after the war the "... Anglo-American loan came about. Lend-lease items retained were sold to Britain at the knockdown price of about 10 cents on the dollar giving an initial value of £1,075 million. Payment was to be stretched out over 50 years at 2% interest." That hardly sounds like any sort of drain to me... I'd love to get a million dollar home for $100,000 and then only have to pay it back at 2% over 50 years. And in fact, at least one member of the House of Lords agrees with me (emphasis mine):
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
Lend-lease during WWII was free for the British.
Postwar reconstruction, however, was not.
Britain was nearly bankrupt for the next decade -- there was still rationing five years after the war. And the US made out extremely well -- the British even had to devalue their currency while they were borrowing money. They were less able to invest in infrastructure than the French and Germans, and the long term consequences for British industry (the world's most advanced from about 1850-1930) were severe.
The point stands -- international lending can be quite powerful.
Because they aren't?
The original Hummer, HMMWV, is still produced by AM General. GM never produced Humvees for the military. The H1 version of the Hummer was produced by AM General as well, but marketed by GM, and was based off the Humvee design. The H2 and H3 were basically a Suburban chassis with an body that bastardized the HMMWV body design.
At least the H2 shares some similarities with the H1 model. The H3 model is just trash.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork