Gulf Arab Investors Showing Interest in Hummer Brand

Over at GM — two Gulf Arab investors seem to have expressed their interest in buying General Motors Corp’s (GM) Hummer brand.

“For sure, there has been interest from various parties within the Gulf … there is a precedent in the cases of Aston Martin, Ferrari or Daimler, and those kinds of solutions could be very realistic solutions,” GM Middle East Managing Director Terry Johnsson said on Tuesday in a telephone interview with Reuters.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, said on Aug. 21 that the automaker had in fact received initial expressions of interest from potential buyers of its Hummer brand, and it was preparing data and other materials to open formal talks.

Whether GM gets to sell or simply kill the Hummer brand, business/wise – it won’t make or break the company. In fact, the Hummer brand has never been a big contributer in terms of numbers to GM’s U.S. sales. Out of GM’s total sales of 3.8 million cars and trucks during fiscal ’07, the entire brand sold only 56,000 trucks in the U.S.

A couple of months ago, with drivers in the U.S. opting for fuel-efficient vehicles in the face of $4 a gallon gasoline, and as Hummer sales kept deteriorating ; GM announced that it was considering its Hummer brand for sale. The co. also announced that it was stopping production at its four plants that build gasoline-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs. Unfortunately, and almost in a melancholic way – big trucks and SUVs won’t dominate the U.S. highways and the U.S market anymore, which at the very least, suggests an energy policy incompetently designed and executed.