AM General for Sale: GM Could Be Interested in Getting Military-grade Hummer
AM General, the brand responsible for the freedom-spreading Humvee (HMMWV) and obnoxious civilian Hummer, is reportedly up for sale. The company is even alleged to have a couple of suitors.
Both General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are said to be potential bidders. That’s rather fitting, considering GM’s interesting history with the company. However, we doubt the purchase of the Indiana-based heavy vehicle manufacturer would inspire it to bring back the Hummer H2.
That’s probably fine for the vast majority of the population, but we’d wager there’s a subset who would love to see the civilian H1 go back on sale within its home country. Hopes for such a future should be kept to a minimum, though. While the U.S. hasn’t adopted the same attitude toward fuel economy as the rest of the globe, more-efficient SUVs remain in fashion. The original Hummer would have to undertake a pretty radical transformation under its hood to accomplish that and we can’t see GM selling an H1 EV just yet.
The most likely outcome would be for the buyer to continue to benefit from the company’s existing government contracts or attempt to expand on them. That makes FCA the less-likely candidate, as General Motors has taken a renewed interested in tempting the military with some of its own designs.
According to Reuters, AM General could easily fetch 10 times its annual earnings of $160 million, and is also being considered for purchase by General Dynamics, Oshkosh Corporation, and BAE Systems.
From Reuters:
The company’s favorable tax treatment because of its current status as an limited liability corporation, would allow a buyer to reduce the company’s taxable earnings for 15 years. That coupled with recent contract awards could push the ultimate value of the company to over $2 billion in a sale.
As nothing is confirmed and every prospective buyer is remaining silent on the issue, there’s a chance this deal will evaporate and AM General will soldier on unchanged for the foreseeable future. It’s not a small amount of money, even for a large automaker, and GM is keeping itself pretty busy by dumping cash into self-driving and data. Of course, it already outlined the potential military applications of autonomous vehicles with its Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure.
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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No way FCA should be touching this as they cant even get the frame welds on the new Jeeps right. Scary, scary dangerous stuff. Just more JUNK from Fiat and GM. How can they be trusted?
The H1 and even H2 are an "American" fetish. There is no real global market, even military. They are to big for what they do and are restricted for us in battle (dangerous). With the current Trump Trade Tirade might make some potential buyers shy. It will be interesting to see what its sold for, and to whom. My bet is some developing country or even a country like Turkey.