QOTD: What's in a Brand?

The pending return of Hummer to the GM stable in the form of an electric pickup is such a perfectly 2020 thing, considering Ford’s recent decision to bestow the Mustang name on its upcoming EV crossover. However, the nameplate’s reported resurrection comes not in the form of a brand, but as a lone model bundled under an existing marque (GMC).

That’s something to think about. When Matthew Guy asked yesterday what defunct brand we’d most like to see return, no doubt most of you mentioned Viking or Marquette. Maybe Oakland or LaSalle. Geo, perhaps. Canadian readers probably yearn for a return of Acadian and Beaumont.

A few of you may have even mentioned Hummer.

GM’s unconfirmed decision to return Hummer to the fold as a model, not a brand, doesn’t sit all that well with this writer. In the past, some nameplates morphed into models after trying to hack it as a brand (Continental, Imperial), but not before they first appeared, yes, as a model. And they both returned to the same marque from which they were born.

In this era of consolidation, and with electric vehicles being no sure thing in the U.S., building a standalone Hummer under an existing truck brand makes sense. GM doesn’t want another short-lived Hummer experiment (not that the brand would have dwindled in the 2010s, had it survived the automaker’s bankruptcy). But it does curtail the name’s ability to spawn a SUV-and-truck family.

What say you, B&B? While GM’s EV future is spread amongst all of its brands (as the technology’s anticipated popularity will supposedly shrink the number of gas-only models in their respective lineups), would you have liked to see an eco-conscious Hummer return with a larger presence?

[Image: LeStudio/Shutterstock]