India’s Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is seriously considering buying General Motors‘ Hummer as it would be a fitting addition to their portfolio of sport utility vehicles, especially after the company already built a Hummer look-alike for the Indian Army last year.
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The Hummer has seen a sharp drop in sales recently owing to the vehicle’s high fuel consumption at 9-15 mpg, and consumers are demanding fuel efficiency with petrol prices at all-time highs of about US$4 a gallon across the United States.
However a very senior official at M&M who spoke to just-auto, on condition of anonymity, said: “Mahindra is very keen on acquiring the Hummer, because of many reasons, but I can’t go into all of them but for one it is the most seen vehicle on TV in any country, these days at least the military version of it”.
AM General initially made Humvees (as they were then known) for the US military, and sold the brand to General Motors in 1999 who now sell the H1, H2 and H3 civilian models.
“It is still too early to talk of prices and timeframes but we are in the process of designing a civilian version of the Mahindra AXE and owning the vehicle it was modelled after would make a lot of sense” added the official.
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By GlobalDataThe Mahindra AXE was built to Indian Army specifications and developed by a team of Indian and international designers in open and hard-top versions, capable of mounting artillery.
The AXE has a 2,696cc, five cylinder diesel engine developing 173bhp at 4,000rpm and maximum torque of 34.67kg/m at 1,800rpm and also looks quite similar to the Hummer.
Industry analysts say Hummer could fetch around $750m if GM puts it up for sale.
Hummer’s 2007’s revenue was at least $2.5bn but year-on-year sales were down 29.6%, and the decline has risen to 35% in the first few months of 2008.
Of the 66,000 Hummers sold in 2007, about 55,000 were in the United States.
“The US market might not be able to afford their own Hummer any longer but India is a growing and strong economy. When Indians like something we go out and get it, no matter what the cost, because we know how to make it work for us,” added the M&M official.
Rival Indian automaker Tata Motors completed its $2.3bn purchase of Jaguar Land Rover from Ford at the beginning of June.
The next day, GM CEO Rick Wagoner said Hummer would be up for “strategic review” and could et a revamped model line or be partially or completely sold.
Kevin Jacobs
