GM to Hummer: Go away faster

GM is getting serious about selling Hummer. So serious, in fact, that COO Fritz Henderson expects the brand to be gone by the end of the year or early 2009.

"We are trying to approach this on an urgent basis," he said. "End of this year is a fair amount of time. It can conceivably happen...but if it takes us to early next year, that is okay, too," Henderson told reporters at the inauguration of GM's second plant in India. "We are working quickly. It will be premature to mention something."

Fritz said that GM has been approached by "several" suitors, but declined to specify who they might be. This is the strongest statement on the subject yet from the General, which has until recently been tight-lipped about the future of Hummer.GM is hoping the sale of Hummer, whose sales are down 40% this year, will help offset some of GM's monumental losses over the past few years and free up money that can be invested in other products. GM's sales are down dramatically this year and the company predicts that the U.S. market will shrink to 14 million vehicles this year, down from 16 million in 2007.

Henderson said that GM's top priority is to turn around its North American business and continue to invest in emerging markets like India, where GM hopes to hold one tenth of the market share by 2010, when Indian vehicles sales are expected to top two million units annually.

Speaking about whether investment in foreign markets will offset the slump in the North American market, Henderson said: "It is not about either/or, it is about both."

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)