General Motors will miss a self-imposed deadline for deciding whether to sell or fold its Hummer brand, but expects to make a decision within weeks, new chief executive Fritz Henderson has said.
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GM had put the Hummer brand of large sport-utility vehicles up for sale last June.
“We have been in dialogue with several interested parties,” Henderson told Reuters. “This is one where frankly we are within weeks of making a judgement of whether we are going to make a sale or not.”
GM has said it plans to focus on four key brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC – under the more aggressive restructuring that has been ordered by president Barack Obama’s autos task force though, after Obama said Monday the restructuring proposals didn’t go far enough, there have been suggestions this could be pared further to just Chevy and Cadillac.
Fuel-thirsty SUVs have fallen out of favour with consumers and GM had said mid-February it expected to make a final determination on Hummer by the end of the first quarter.
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By GlobalData“Certainly as I look at it, this is measured in weeks or days, not necessarily months at this point,” Henderson said.
A decision on GM’s Saturn brand is further out, he added. GM had planned to only offer Saturn vehicles to the end of 2011, the end of its product life cycle and that has not changed under the more aggressive restructuring now contemplated, he said.
GM is considering various options for Saturn.
“Hummer is clearly a sale and you will get some announcements from us as to whether or not we are going to have a buyer relatively shortly,” Henderson told Reuters. “Saturn is going to take a little bit more time.”
