Just a day after announcing the successful sale of Saab, General Motors today announced that a deal to sell its Hummer unit of SUVs has fallen through. GM has been negotiating with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co., Ltd., but today announced in a statement that the Chinese heavy machinery maker was, “unable to complete the acquisition of Hummer.”

GM agreed to try and find a buyer for its Hummer brand upon exiting bankruptcy last year. GM decided to refocus on just four brands (Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac). Since then it announced the shut-down of the historic Pontiac brand and also the wind-down of Saturn after a deal to sell it to Penske fell through. Just yesterday GM completed the sale of Saab to Dutch automaker Spyker.

GM has said it will honor Hummer warranties and provide service support and parts to owners worldwide.

Official release after the jump:

Continue Reading…

Under new ownership by Chinese heavy machinery maker Sichuan Tengzhong, Hummer will move forward with plans to introduce a smaller and more efficient H4 model. Previewed in concept form as the HX (above), the H4 would be lighter and more fuel-conscious, but wouldn’t give up on the brand’s hard-core attitude. It would be designed as a rival to the Jeep Wrangler in rugged off-road performance.

According to brand CEO Jim Taylor, the H4 would come to market in about three years, followed a year or two later by an even smaller and even more fuel-efficient H5 model.

The sale of Hummer to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd. is expected to be finalized by December 1st, although judging by the fact that GM still hasn’t managed to sell Saab or Saturn, that date might be pushed back – or the sale might not happen at all.

[Source: Autmotive News via LeftLaneNews]

General Motors has sold its Hummer brand of SUVs to Chinese heavy industrial machinery builder Sichuan Tengzhon. No details have been released but the sale was reportedly made for a sum of just $150 million.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson had estimated in documents filed during GM’s bankruptcy proceedings that the brand could be worth as much as $500 million.

The once glamorous brand of massive and massively expensive SUVs began to suffer when the price of fuel spiked last year, but the recession hurt the company far more as it has recorded a 64 percent decline in sales so far in 2009. That drop is the largest sales decline recorded by any automobile brand this year.

Tengzhong will take over Hummer’s brand network as well as it’s manufacturing processes, however, GM will continue to build the H2, H3 and H3T on contract until June 2011. Brand CEO Jim Taylor will remain on with the company.

The sale of Hummer is actually the first successful one in GM’s brand elimination process. The company announced it would eliminate Pontiac, while selling off Saturn, Saab and Hummer and keeping four core brands: GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet. The sale of Saturn to Penske recently fell through while GM has yet to sign a contract with Koenigsegg group, which is interested in Saab.

[Source: Automotive News]