GM to Stop Building H2 and H3 in 2010
Canadian Auto Press

It should come as no surprise that Hummer sales are in the dumpster lately. With GM having left the brand to fend for itself during restructuring, year-to-date sales are off some 64% to 8,500 units, made worse by low dealer inventories of only 1,300 units compared to 7,400 vehicles during the same time last year, says Automotive News. Hummer has plans to see 25,000 units in 2010, however, which begs the question, how?

2008 Hummer HX Concept

While new Chinese owner Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd and its new CEO Jim Taylor are looking to boost sales by actually marketing the brand, which hasn’t been done for a very long time, it’s going to take a lot more than marketing to set the brand straight. It’s going to take new models that are more in tune with today’s fuel friendlier market than the current mid-size H3 and full-size H2.

These two SUVs are fabulous off-roaders, and the automaker’s new management knows that anything that wears the Hummer nameplate will have to be equally capable off the beaten track. It will look to the H4 that made its debut as the HX Concept at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit to bring the brand down-market to where it can go head-to-head with the top-selling two-door Jeep Wrangler and four-door Wrangler Unlimited. Sichuan Tengzhong will get the plans to the H4 when the deal is completed, an expected transfer date being December 1 of this year, with the new model expected to arrive in about three years, according to Automotive News.

Concrete plans for the brand should come forth soon after it changes hands, and that news could include a future H5 model that would go up against a new Fiat-based subcompact Jeep model. Automotive News reports Taylor as saying the H4 and H5 might even replace the current H2 and H3 in the brand’s lineup, although it would be difficult for Hummer enthusiasts to imagine the brand without a full-size or even mid-size model in the lineup.

GM will stop building the H2 and H3 models soon, the end of 2010 being a possible deadline, which means that Hummer’s new management has their work cut out for them in finding a new manufacturing partner that can build to the same level of quality as GM.