REPORT: Tata and Mahindra interested in HUMMER
Got an automotive brand to sell? It doesn't matter how it's performing in the marketplace, whether its products are outdated or just not popular in the present buying climate. If you've got one, an Indian automaker wants to buy it. At least that's the way it seems after learning that two Indian automakers, Tata and Mahindra, have approached General Motors to purchase the HUMMER brand. GM only announced that it would begin considering what to do with HUMMER this week.
Tata has already gobbled up Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, but apparently is still hungry for some more American-owned metal, and what's more American than HUMMER? Mahindra, meanwhile, will be bringing its diesel-powered Appalachian pickup to the U.S. market by the end of 2009. Tata and Mahindra tend to go after the same things, as both were bidders for Jaguar/Land Rover and both are competing for the right to own motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta. Of course, neither India-based company is commenting on their interest in HUMMER and GM's all like, "Whoa, we just said we were thinking about it" (not an actual quote). HUMMER sales last month fell 60.2% last month compared to May 2007, and with gas prices going up and up, the poster brand for insensitive consumption may not have long to live under the GM corporate umbrella.
[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
TyWright 2:56PM (6/06/2008)
Nice - hopefully the Indians can make it cool again.
We want high quality, India!!
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TwinTurbo3000GT 3:43PM (6/06/2008)
hummer is already cool...it's just not 'hip'. I would rather drive a truely cool vehicle than some stupid fashion statement or pop icon.
Disgruntled Goat 4:55PM (6/06/2008)
"I would rather drive a truely cool vehicle than some stupid fashion statement or pop icon."
Unless you rarely travel on paved roads, a Hummer is nothing BUT a fashion statement.
endotoxic 8:31PM (6/06/2008)
"Unless you rarely travel on paved roads, a Hummer is nothing BUT a fashion statement."
Exactly. And painfully obvious compensatory device.
martin 3:00PM (6/06/2008)
tata have certainly got the money to splash about, i'd imagine hummers would sell well in india and china, i dont know much about mahindra though
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DJ 3:02PM (6/06/2008)
So how would this work? I thought the H2 was built on the Suburban/Yukon chassis and the H3 was built off the Colorado platform. If so, would Tata simply be buying a brand name or would they also purchase production facilities to build them?
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Aprime 4:25PM (6/06/2008)
The H2 is still on GMT800, as a matter of fact. It has yet to move to the more up-to-date GMT900... If ever (read: not).
MM 5:57PM (6/06/2008)
GM owns the "Marketing Rights" for the Hummer name. What that means is that Tata (or whoever) will be buying the Franchise Rights, i.e. dealerships. That is all that Hummer truly is. The H2 and the H3 are a great way for GM to fill excess capacity on the Colorado and Tahoe platforms.
The biggest part that kills me out of this whole scenerio is, GM hasn't shipped a new Hummer to its dealers since the last week of February due to the American Axle strike. Of course there will be a 60% reduction in sales.
jamie 1:23PM (6/07/2008)
H-Hour! D-Day!!
What should GM do about the iconic Hummer? Gas prices are killing the beast. Sales are plummeting through the showroom floor. The problem is quite simple, my dear Watson. It's the solution that boggles the mind.
First the General must reinvent the GMC brand. Stop selling Chevy clones! (GMC Acadia, Yukon, Sierra Canyon, Savanna). GMC should be repositioned as just a sales channel for Hummer and Opel Movana.
Offer Hummer as a premium SUV (H2, H3 & HX) and pickup truck (T2 & T3). Hummers should be fully equipped with 2WD/4WD and hybrid technology. Hummer should be built on the same platforms as the Chevrolet Tahoe/ Cadillac Escalade and Chevy Colorado. Just plop a Hummer coach and body onto those platforms.
Ergo, the costs come down drastically (especially with the demise of GMC clones). Hummer, which is a more macho sounding moniker and a more befitting cachet, fills the void. All SUVs (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Hummer) could then be built in one assembly plant, which likely would be quite busy as a result. The T2 & T3 could be built at either the SUV plant or at a Chevrolet truck facility.
No need to say, "Goodbye old chum". Rather it would be to GM's advantage to continue this well known respectable marque.
Kotse 4:11PM (6/06/2008)
My suggestion to GM Re: Tata or Mahindra Interest
The SUV market is DEAD....
SELL IT!!
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Samurai Jack 3:07PM (6/06/2008)
Don't assume they want HUMMER for just the commercial aspects. The market for military vehicles is still pretty robust, and the price of fuel means much less to national governments.
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rar 3:10PM (6/06/2008)
The military Humvee is made by AM General not GM. GM bought the rights to us the Hummer name.
Matt 3:41PM (6/06/2008)
Rar, you are certainly right that the military's HummVee's are made by AM General, but Samurai Jack is on to something. As pointed out over at Dealscape, an M&A blog, the civilian Hummer brand provides an opportunity to share the cost of military vehicle production with a civilian variant. And both Tata and Mahindra are competing for an Indian military contract to make HummVee alternatives.
http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/06/indians_interested_in_gms_humm.php
Samurai Jack 4:06PM (6/06/2008)
You're assuming I mean military vehicles for the US government. I'm not. India exports weapons to many countries, and as Matt has pointed out both Tata and Mahindra are angling for an Indian domestic military contract. Hummer would be a huge boon for either of them.
Torrent 3:09PM (6/06/2008)
uh....Good luck?
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mk 3:14PM (6/06/2008)
Ok.... So Britain, the US, and other should just sell of all of our name brands to the Indians and Chinese....
Yeah, that sounds good.
What happened to GM making Hummer viable? The British sold off Rover, Land Rover, Mini, MG, Triumph, Jaguar, Aston Martin (and partially bought back some of Aston), Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lotus, and others to other countries....
Pretty soon people aren't going to remember those brands as British, and who knows... maybe in a few decades, we'll all think of Ford, GM, and Chrysler as those foreign-owned brands that used to be American way back at the turn of the century..."
Is there no such thing as brand equity, or national pride?
Evidently those are becoming as politically incorrect as national security.
That is one way to end the UAW's grip, and the US Government's over-regulation though... liquidate assets to other countries entirely.
This is just kinda stupid all around, and I hope people wake up before the American auto industry is just a memory. The American auto industry is a big part of who needs to wake up.
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Oluseyi 4:51PM (6/06/2008)
Welcome to the beginnings of the post-national economy.
Seriously. The days when companies were uniquely identified as "American" or "British" or "German" are almost over; car companies have been fairly promiscuous with parts, platforms and supplies for decades, anyway, so it's now just seeping up to the branding.
The only people who care are those holding on to memories of shattered empires (read: the British, and increasingly the Americans). The rest of us just like cool cars.
endotoxic 8:31PM (6/06/2008)
"Is there no such thing as brand equity, or national pride?"
When money is the bottom line, any kind of decency becomes a rare commodity. This is global economics. And the result of an expanding national debt and trade deficit that our government has allowed the Chinese and other nations to underwrite.
It won't necessarily be a bad thing. Many of the British brands you mentioned were sold to American companies, and were better off for it; they wouldn't have been able to survive otherwise.
Realists know that China is on its way to becoming the next superpower, and in enough time could surpass us. India is not far behind.
I don't necessarily like it, but there it is.
tekdemon 3:15AM (6/07/2008)
I'll point out that most of those brands have ended up doing better after being sold off.
And quite frankly, many of those car companies were already dead (or equivalent to dead) before their names and whatnot were purchased by car manufacturers from other countries.
It's not like people actually desperately wanted one of the last Rovers, or they probably would have sold enough to not go bankrupt.
Point is, if you so desperately want to keep Hummer in the US go and buy a ton of H2's or something. How that at all helps the US is beyond me though.
TriShield 3:14PM (6/06/2008)
GM just owns the rights to market the HUMMER name, it's still AM General and they still make military vehicles.
Realistically HUMMER is the only brand GM can sell that has equity, much like Jeep with Chrysler. It's an iconic, legendary brand and it's the only unique name left in GM's umbrella. Only HUMMER can do what it can do, the rest of GM's brands can't do it. That alone makes GM's mismanagement of it a total travesty.
AutoExtremist wrote an excellent piece about GM and HUMMER for On The Table this week.
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