Hummer is back! The American manufacturer GMC has the former Antichrist dusted from every environmentalist and provided with a future-proof layer of varnish. The GMC Hummer EV continues the style of Hummer in a way, but at the same time is quite a disruption compared to its ancestors. Time to dive into Hummer’s history.
In 1979 the US Army came up with a package of requirements for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). This new vehicle served as the Jeep’s successor to have a broad military deployability. The HMMWV had to be able to perform well on and off the beaten track. The list also stated that the new vehicle was expected to climb a gradient of 60 percent and to be able to ford water to a depth of 1.5 meters. Three companies submitted a prototype: AM General, Chrysler Defense and Teledyne Continental. The military conducted intensive tests: in total, the prototypes covered 600,000 miles (960,000 km) in scorching heat and freezing cold. AM General’s HMMWV came out on top. In 1983, the manufacturer was awarded a five-year contract in which the military asked for 55,000 ‘Humvees’, as the HMMWV is popularly called.
AM General HMMWV prototype
The Humvee first came into action in 1989 during Operation Just Cause, the American invasion of Panama. The first versions of the Humvee, called M998, were not equipped with armor, which became painfully clear during the ‘Battle of Mogadishu’ in 1993 (known from the movie Black Hawk Down). That is why AM General came up with the M1114 in 1996, a Humvee that was equipped with armor. To this day, the US military, among others, still uses Humvees. The most recent M1151A1 has a 6.5-liter V8 turbo diesel with 190 hp and 515 Nm under the hood. Although the Humvee is loved for its off-road capabilities, the extra armor actually made the vehicle too heavy for optimal deployability in combat situations.
For the private individual
The story goes that Arnold Schwarzenegger during the filming of Kindergarten Cop saw a convoy passing Humvees and started lobbying for a civilian variant. With success: AM General started selling a civil version of the M998 in 1992. That became the now legendary Hummer H1. The H1 shared many components with its military counterpart and was bolted together on the same assembly line. Among other things, it got things like extra soundproofing and air conditioning on board. To top it off, the H1 was provided with a glossy lacquer layer. Despite this, the Hummer H1 is not very civilized. Basically, the H1 can do pretty much anything a Humvee can do, but the military premise gives the H1 a pretty rough edge. The curtain fell for the H1 in mid-2006, partly due to falling demand and increasingly strict emission requirements for diesels. The last variant produced was the H1 Alpha, with a 304 hp and 704 Nm strong 6.6-liter Duramax V8 turbo diesel under the hood.
Hummer H2
AM General had already sold the Hummer brand name to General Motors in 1999, but the original manufacturer continued to build the H1. GM’s first Hummer was the H2, which saw the light of day in 2002. Unlike the H1, the H2 was designed with private use as a starting point. GM contracted AM General for the assembly. Under the hood of the H2 is a Vortec V8. Initially the block had a displacement of 6 liters and delivered 320 hp, later 10 hp was added. In the last model years, the displacement grew to 6.2 liters and the power increased to 398 hp. Not that this led to spectacular performance: the strongest version of the H2 accelerated to 60 mph (97 km / h) in 9.1 seconds. The utilitarian nature of the H1 had disappeared. In the H2 things like heated and electrically adjustable front seats, a Bose sound system and a DVD player were present.
The Hummer H2 almost seems to be the origin of the word ‘patserbak’ here in the Netherlands. Kroymans imported the vehicle to the Netherlands from 2006. The starting price of the 3,000 kg barge was € 93,650 at the time, with the current CO2-dependent bpm it would undoubtedly have been a lot higher. For our little country, the H2 was and is of course antisocial large. Thanks to its angular appearance and mediocre interior finish, it was never considered an icon of sophistication. But movie stars and rappers loved it. The H2 was a welcome guest in video clips and was often equipped with even larger wheels, gull-wing doors, screens in the trunk, striking colors and other dubious contributions from the tuning world.
Downfall and Resurrection
Hummer introduced a third model in 2006, especially for the international market: the H3. Unlike the H1 and H2, it was not built by AM General. The H3 was based on the GMT355 platform, which included the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. Under the hood, there was a choice of a 3.5-liter (later 3.7) five-cylinder turbo diesel or a 5.3-liter petrol V8. The H3 had a starting price of € 57,990 in the Netherlands and was comparable in size to cars such as the BMW X5 and Mercedes M-class. He has never really done well in Europe. The 2008 financial crisis was the death knell for Hummer. General Motors wanted to get rid of the ailing brand and was in negotiations with the Chinese Sichuan Tengzhong. Hummer would change hands for $ 150 million (€ 126 million). However, this deal failed, as did a number of other attempts. Finally, on April 7, 2010, GM announced the end of Hummer.
Hummer H3
However, the brand name is experiencing a resurgence. GMC has dusted off Hummer and comes with a full electric reincarnation: the Hummer EV. This one is still very large and angular, but the boozer image that the H1, H2 and H3 had carefully built up over the years is a thing of the past. The top version of the Hummer EV gets three electric motors that together deliver a power of 1,014 hp. With that, the colossus has to sprint to 60 mph (97 km / h) in three seconds. The starting price of this top model amounts to around € 95,000, but the Hummer EV will not make the crossing to the Netherlands.