General Motors is planning to revive the iconic Hummer brand. However, unlike the Hummer of yore, it will be a different product range with a different character. The Hummers essentially used to be big brawny off-road vehicles derived from a military SUV. However, in future, Hummer could be the brand name of a range of SUVs and pick-ups that run on battery.
GM's new electric truck/SUV range has been referred to as ‘BT1’. The carmaker could revive the Hummer brand through new generation vehicles that are produced from this range. GM already has plans to launch a GMC-badged electric pick-up truck and a Cadillac-badged electric SUV. Besides this, the carmaker could be planning a new line-up of all-electric vehicle, which could be launched under the brand name Hummer.
The new pick-up truck in the new brand name could be launched by the end of 2021. The next year, a performance version of the same model could hit the road. Later, by 2023, GM could launch an electric SUV.
The new family of all-electric pickups and SUVs will be based on a dedicated modular electric car platform. The new platform that will bundle the electric motor and batteries into the chassis could also be flexible enough to accommodate body types in different sizes and offer front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive.
The Hummer brand came into being through the civilian vehicles of military and commercial vehicle maker A M General. The civilian version of the company’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) or Humvee for short came to be called Hummer. In 1998, GM bought the rights to the brand and built three SUVs around it; the original Humvee-based Hummer H1, and the smaller H2 and H3. However, the brand could not survive the global economic downturn of 2008 and was discontinued by 2010.
