General Motors is preparing to give a final salute to the hulking Hummer H1, the ultimate in sport utility might and, to its many critics, the ultimate in environmental incorrectness.
GM said on Friday that it expected to stop building the H1, flagship of its Hummer line, next month. The move comes 14 years after it first went on sale to the public.
The H1, originally called simply the Hummer, and lately known as the H1 Alpha, is derived from the military vehicle called the Humvee.
PHOTO: AP
The wide, rugged Jeep-like vehicle captivated many television viewers, who watched it trek across the Iraqi desert during the Gulf War. Hoping to capitalize on Humvee-mania, its maker, AM General, quickly brought out a street-legal version.
Despite its US$140,000-plus price tag, rough ride and a fuel economy rating of about 4.3km per liter, well-heeled buyers and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger snapped up the H1 when it first reached the market in 1992.
"It started out as a huge image boost for GM -- everyone knows what a Hummer is," said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata, an industry statistics firm in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
About 12,000 H1s have been sold to the public, including 4,000 by GM, which bought the marketing rights to Hummer from AM General in 2000.
Since then, GM has added two slightly smaller Hummers, the stately H2, introduced in 2002, and the relatively petite H3, which went on sale last year.
Perhaps because there are more choices of Hummers, or perhaps because the H1's moment of military chic simply has passed due to the conflict overseas, sales of the H1 have plummeted.
GM, which sold 875 H1s in 2000, sold just 374 last year, and 98 in the first four months of this year, according to Autodata.
With diesel fuel prices around US$3 a gallon (3.8 liter), it costs more than US$150 to fill up the H1's two gas tanks, which together hold 195 liter.
And with GM on a push to recast its image as a green company, "it's time for it to go away," Pinelli said of the biggest Hummer.
Environmentalists, who have used the H1 as an automotive punching bag since it first heaved onto American streets, could hardly contain themselves.
"It's one thing if it's carrying soldiers to and from a fight," said Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club, which maintains an anti-Hummer Web page called "Hummerdinger.org."
"It's another if it's hauling lattes home from Starbucks," he said.
For its part, GM said high fuel prices were not the reason it pulled the plug on the H1. Instead, GM said Hummer's maker, AM General, "will dedicate its engineering, manufacturing, marketing and dealer resources to bringing more new or significantly revised models to market."
Despite the decline in H1 sales, Hummer dealers expressed disappointment that the gargantuan vehicle's days were numbered.
"The H1 is where it all started," said Ben Olin, sales manager at Ed Schmidt Hummer, a Maumee, Ohio, dealership that was one of the first in the US to sell the H1. "There's a lot of heritage that goes along with it."
Olin sold just two H1s last year. Many buyers, he said, are now turning to the less overbearing H2, which is based on the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.
Indeed, GM has sold more than 100,000 H2s and more than 50,000 H3s, based on the Chevy Colorado pickup, since each went on sale.
Leo Karl III, president of Hummer by Karl in New Canaan, Connecticut, said he was surprised at GM's decision to discontinue the vehicle after investing money to make it street-legal. The H1 has a "beautiful interior and unbelievable" 6.6-liter, turbo diesel V-8 engine, Karl said.
Karl said he would miss the H1.
"If there's one vehicle on the road that's like nothing else, that's it," he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary