By 2008, Hummer’s viability in the economic downturn was questioned. Rather than being transferred to the Motors Liquidation Company as part of the GM bankruptcy in 2009, the brand was retained by GM, in order to investigate its sale. No final deal was made,and in 2010, Hummer dealerships began shutting down.Ten years later in 2020, the nameplate returned, not as a separate brand but instead as two models, an electric pickup truck and SUV, to be sold under the GMC brand as the “GMC Hummer EV”.
The production EV is scheduled to launch in fall 2021.AM General had planned to sell a civilian version of its Humvee as far back as the late 1980s. Having the same structure and most mechanical components, the civilian Hummers were finished in automotive gloss paint, adding passenger car enhancements such as air conditioning, sound insulation, upgraded upholstery, stereo systems, wood trim, and convenience packages.
The civilian model began in part because of the persistence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who saw an Army convoy while filming Kindergarten Cop in Oregon and began to campaign and lobby for a civilian version to be available on the market.

In 1992, AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee vehicle to the public under the brand name “Hummer”. The first two Hummer H1s to be sold were purchased by Schwarzenegger.In December 1999, AM General sold the brand name to General Motors, but continued to manufacture the vehicles. GM was responsible for the marketing and distribution of all civilian Hummers produced by AM General. Shortly thereafter, GM introduced two of its own design models, the H2 and H3, and renamed the original vehicle H1.
AM General continued to build the H1 until it was discontinued in 2006, and was contracted by GM to produce the H2. The H3 was built in Shreveport, LA alongside the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, with which it shared the GMT-355 platform (modified and designated GMT-345). Hummer dealership buildings featured an oversized half Quonset Hut style roof, themed to the Hummer brand’s military origins.

By 2006, the Hummer began to be exported and sold through importers and distributors in 33 countries. On October 10, 2006, GM began producing the Hummer H3 at its Port Elizabeth plant in South Africa for international markets.The Hummers built there at first were only left-hand drive, but right-hand drive versions were added and exported to Australia and other markets.

The H2 was also assembled in Kaliningrad, Russia, by Avtotor, starting in 2006 and ending in 2009. The plant produced a few hundred vehicles annually, and its output was limited to local consumption with five dealers in Russia.On June 3, 2008, one day prior to GM’s annual shareholder meeting, Rick Wagoner, GM’s CEO at that time, said the brand was being reviewed, and had the possibility of either being sold, having the production line completely redesigned, or being discontinued.This was due to the decreasing demand for large SUVs as a result of higher oil prices. Almost immediately after the announcement, a pair of Indian automakers, including Mahindra & Mahindra, expressed interest in purchasing all or part of Hummer.

In April 2009, GM President Fritz Henderson stated several interested parties had approached GM regarding the Hummer business.On June 1, 2009, as a part of the General Motors bankruptcy announcement, the company revealed that the Hummer brand would be discontinued. However, the following day GM announced that instead it had reached a deal to sell the brand to an undisclosed buyer. After GM announced that same day that the sale was to an undisclosed Chinese company, CNN and the New York Times identified the buyer of the Hummer truck unit as China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. Later that day, Sichuan Tengzhong itself announced the deal on their own website.

On January 6, 2010, GM CEO Ed Whitacre said he hoped to close the deal with Tengzhong by the end of that month. On February 1, 2010, it was announced that Sichuan and General Motors had agreed to extend the deadline until the end of February as Sichuan tried to get approval by the Chinese government. It was also revealed that the price tag of the Hummer brand was $150 million.

Later, on February 24, 2010, GM announced the Tengzhong deal had collapsed and the Hummer brand would soon shut down. There were reports that Sichuan Tengzhong might pursue the purchase of the Hummer brand from GM by purchasing it privately through the company’s new J&A Tengzhong Fund SPC, a private equity investment fund owned by an offshore entity that was recruiting private investors to buy into its acquisition plan. The financial markets posed problems for established borrowers and even more for Tengzhong, a little-known company from western China, at the same time as the potential value of the Hummer brand continued to decline given high fuel prices and weak consumer demand.

The company announced it was willing to consider offers for all or part of the assets. American company Raser Technologies along with several others expressed interest in buying the company. However, on April 7, 2010, this attempt failed as well, and General Motors officially said it was shutting down the Hummer SUV brand and offering rich rebates in a bid to move the remaining 2,200 vehicles.

After filling a rental-car fleet order, the last Hummer H3 rolled off the line at Shreveport on May 24, 2010.

GMC Hummer EV pickup truck In mid-2019, rumors began to circulate that General Motors was considering reviving the Hummer nameplate in 2021, as the market for off-road vehicles was reaching historic levels of sales.GM President Mark Ruess was asked about the possible return in the summer of 2019, and said, “I love Hummer. I don’t know. We’re looking at everything.”Credibility to the earlier reporting began to solidify after the conclusion of the 2019 General Motors strike, as contract negotiations led to the commitment by GM of saving its Detroit-Hamtramck facility from closing by investing in and retooling it to build future electric trucks and SUVs; the products were to be built on GM’s upcoming “BT1” electric truck platform.GM’s own documentation listed three brands as receiving products from the BT1 architecture: Cadillac (presumably an electric Cadillac Escalade), Chevrolet (likely under the Silverado nameplate), and a third unknown brand referred to as the “M-Brand.”

Industry insiders claimed they had sources saying that the “M-Brand” was a Hummer because a revival of the brand with established name recognition would help reduce marketing costs. The Hummer revival on the BT1 platform was known internally as “Project O,” potentially named after former Chief Camaro Engineer Al Oppenheiser (the man responsible for the return of the Camaro in 2010), who was moved from Camaro development to overseeing an EV program.Oppenheiser later confirmed this himself. By November 2019, media reports all but confirmed that Hummer would return with two electric models, a truck and an SUV, sometime in 2021.
On November 21, 2019, General Motors CEO Mary Barra confirmed in that GM would be releasing an electric pickup truck in the fall of 2021, but did not name the brand under which it would be built.The new Hummer line will not be a stand-alone brand, as it was before General Motors filed for bankruptcy, but a model within GM’s GMC brand.On January 30, 2020, GM released a series of short videos revealing the return of Hummers in the form of electric SUV and truck models marketed under the GMC brand.
A 30-second Super Bowl ad featured NBA superstar LeBron James. The vehicle was to be revealed on May 20, 2020, but the date was later pushed back to October 20, 2020.The Hummer EV SUT was officially revealed on October 20, 2020, during the 2020 World Series. The Hummer EV SUV was unveiled during the NCAA Tournament Final Four on April 3, 2021.The model is expected to be followed by an electric SUV in 2022

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