Test Drives

Hummer comes to South Africa as GM's youngest brand

In mid-2007, General Motors South Africa will roll out the exciting Hummer H3 into showrooms around the country as the HUMMER brand, the youngest brand in the GM global organisation, enters the South African market and builds on a short but proud product history.

• Just four years old, the HUMMER brand is the most clearly defined brand in the United States automotive industry.
• The clear brand definition flows over into global brand recognition even though the prime market for HUMMER to date has been the United States.
• As niche vehicles, the HUMMER H1 and H2 have achieved sales of 175 000 units to date. The introduction of the H3 model will further broaden market reach and appeal.
• The HUMMER brand enjoys a youthful buyer profile in the global GM product range.
• HUMMER enjoys a competitor product conquest rate of over 60%, the highest of all GM products.
• The brand is renowned for its best-of-the-best backup.

In the early 90’s, the HUMMER H1 established itself as the ultimate niche vehicle and an American brand icon with its rugged appearance and nature. The sheer presence of this ultimate 4X4 runabout overcame any shortcomings it may have had in terms of creature comforts. This was the ultimate expression of toughness after all. Little wonder that it found favour amongst the stars, mainly as the ultimate toy.

The H1 certainly set the scene for the HUMMER brand with its overwhelming presence but had little relevance when it came to everyday functionality. That relevance came with the introduction of the HUMMER H2 SUV in 2002 and marked the real emergence of the HUMMER brand as a widely available vehicle and a serious contender for a spot on American driveways. The H2 provided the catalyst for wide ranging brand development, although the brand focus remained very much on the USA.

The H2 SUT, effectively a double cab pick-up in South African talk, expanded model choice in the H2 range with an open rear load bed. GM recognised that the full development of the brand would depend on a volume mid-sized model that would offer a good balance between performance and economy in the American market. The H3 is that vehicle. Just as capable, but more accessible than the H2, the H3 would provide a platform for global homologation* in both left- and right-hand drive versions.

This vision of an expanded global presence for the HUMMER brand led to the introduction of the H3 for American buyers in 2004 and the announcement in 2005 that the H3G model would be developed for global markets. The requirement for right hand drive as an option for this global H3 model and the emergence of South Africa as an effective automotive exporter saw General Motors South Africa well placed to take on the manufacture of the mid-sized HUMMER for markets outside of the United States. The company was subsequently named as an off-shore manufacturing hub for the H3. The Port Elizabeth plant will in fact be the sole manufacturer of right-hand-drive HUMMER H3s.

The H3 remains true to the HUMMER brand with its unmistakeable visual links to the H2 and iconic H1. It does this in a mid-size package, however, to significantly enhance the accessibility of a genuine HUMMER to a wider market. Vehicle styling and performance, including an exceptional off-road capability and excellent operating economy, are important elements of this newcomer to the world’s 4X4 SUV stage.

Just who is likely to buy a HUMMER H3? Global research conducted by General Motors indicates that this exciting new SUV will be attractive to those who are independent of mind, self assured and confident. They are likely to have an entrepreneurial flair and will not shy away from being noticed, they will in fact relish the idea of not being mainstream and have an acute brand awareness. Already successful, or soon to be so, the HUMMER H3 buyer will likely thrive in a competitive environment and wish to embrace a sense of fun in motoring. As capable off-road as it is in the city, the H3 is the ideal vehicle to provide that sense of fun.

The HUMMER buyer is likely to be a conquest from one of the more utility type 4X4 SUVs looking for better specification, performance and operating economy together with an association with an iconic brand. It is also likely that the HUMMER buyer’s aspirations for a second car are likely to be at the top end of the prestige or premium car brands.

The Hummer H3 will go on sale in South Africa in mid 2007.

GM’S Hummer – a brief history

General Motors HUMMER brand has its roots in a vehicle originally designed for the United States military and designated the M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle or HMMWV, a mouthful that did not take long to be abbreviated to Hum-Vee. The build of these vehicles was contracted to AM General Corporation, formerly a division of American Motors, in its Mishawaka, Indiana plant.

AM General had planned to produce a civilian version of this iconic off-roader in the early 1980s but it was not until 1990, when two matching white HUMMERS were driven from London to Beijing over some of the roughest terrain imaginable, that the civilian potential of this unique vehicle began to surface. The following year would see the HUMMER’s profile rise considerably as it distinguished itself in Operation Desert Storm.

The civilian version of the HUMMER arrived on the scene in 1991 and it was this vehicle, produced by AM General, that first introduced the HUMMER nameplate to American buyers. According to HUMMER legend, the introduction of the civilian version came as a result of a request for one of these vehicles by film star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had been suitably impressed when a convoy of these vehicles passed by the set during filming of Kindergarten Cop in 1990 and felt that one belonged in his vehicle collection.

Schwarzenegger would become the first civilian to register a HUMMER and followed his initial purchase with others. One of these would be successfully converted to clean burning Hydrogen fuel in 2003 during his successful campaign to be elected as governor of California.

In 1999, AM General sold the HUMMER brand name to General Motors but continued to manufacture the vehicles. General Motors assumed the responsibility for marketing and distribution of all HUMMERS produced by AM General. Eager to build on the HUMMER brand, GM renamed the original HUMMER the H1 and added the H2 and H3 models to the range. The manufacture of the H2 model was contracted to AM General while the latest addition to the range in 2005, the new H3, saw HUMMER production move in-house at General Motors for the first time in its Shreveport, Louisiana, plant. In May 2006, GM announced that production of the H1 model for civilian use would cease with the focus now on the H2 and H3 models.

The brand went international in 2004 with General Motors announcing the appointment of a number of dealers in global markets, mainly in Europe. Keen interest in other markets encouraged GM to further globalise the brand with the introduction of the HUMMER H3G, a true global model that offers the choice of either left- or right-hand drive and is designed to meet varying global homologation* requirements. It is this export specification model that has been designated for production in the GM plant in Port Elizabeth for distribution in South Africa and export to selected global markets.

* Homologation is a technical term, derived from the Greek homologos for "agree," which is used in English to signify the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or a professional body, any of which would normally work from a set of strict rules or standards to determine whether such approval should be given.