Although General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner says the automaker has received ‘significant interest’ in the sale of over $4 billion worth of assets, apparently the company’s Hummer brand isn’t quite garnering the amount of interest GM is letting on.
Although previous reports had India’s Mahindra & Mahindra pegged as the leading candidate to buy GM’s Hummer brand, the Indian automaker has revealed that it is not interested in the iconic off-road brand.
“There has been a lot of speculation. I want to say categorically we are not pursuing Hummer,” Mahindra Vice Chairman Anand Mahindra told Automotive News. “We are pursuing our own models strategy and we do not want to tarnish our lean warrior strategy.”
Mahindra is currently planning to launch fuel-efficient trucks and SUVs into the U.S. market and is concerned that the purchase of the Hummer brand could diminish the company’s image as an eco-friendly automaker.
Automotive News also reports that China’s Hunan Changfeng Motor Co. has turned down the offer to purchase Hummer for similar reasons.
With Hummer’s abysmal fuel economy obviously preceding its reputation as a competent off-road vehicle maker, GM might have a harder time than first thought unloading the brand that has become the poster child for poor fuel economy.
