Until General Motors' deal with Chinese-based company Tengzhong to buy Hummer is finalized, the brand's future has been put on pause.
But when and if the deal is, in fact, completed, Hummer CEO Jim Taylor has some future product plans for the brand that he recently shared with Automotive News. In recent years Hummer has become the poster child for bloated, inefficient SUVs, and the brand has been plagued by plunging sales as a result.
We'll start with the Hummer H2, production of which ended in December 2008. Taylor says there are proposed styling and engineering changes on the drawing board for the model, although he wasn't specific. Tengzhong has reportedly seen the future H2 plans and apparently supports the changes. Should demand for H2s suddenly spike, he estimates it will take three or four months to get the Mishawaka, Indiana, plant functioning again, and that an updated H2 wouldn't roll into dealerships for at least two years.
As for the H3, a diesel model is reportedly planned, but not for the U.S. market. Taylor said a styling refresh is also in the works for the H3, which is built on GM's Colorado/Canyon mid-size truck platform, the future of which is unclear. Like the H2, the changes would materialize some two to three years after the deal is completed.
What's not clear at this point is whether a separate, Jeep Wrangler-fighting H4 model (remember the HX concept, above?) or an additional H3 variant will be added to the lineup. The H4, which was supposedly a year away from production under the old GM, would be smaller than an H3 with styling similar to the HX concept. Taylor indicated that -- you guessed it -- it would take two-and-a-half years after the Tengzhong deal for an H4 model to be built if it were approved.
So with the Hummer sale still in a holding pattern, it seems unlikely that we will see any significant changes to the Hummer lineup until 2011 at the earliest.
Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)