Hummer's Class 3 Loophole: From Schwarzenegger's H1 to the Electric Revival

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The Hummer began as the M998 Humvee, built by AM General after the U.S. military issued specs in 1979 for a tactical vehicle that could climb 60-degree slopes and follow tank tracks. It was more than seven feet wide, with 16 inches of ground clearance and the drivetrain pushed up into a tunnel splitting the cabin. In 1990, while filming Kindergarten Cop in Oregon, Arnold Schwarzenegger saw an Army convoy and lobbied AM General for a street version; he bought the first two when it launched in 1992. In December 1999 General Motors bought the brand, renamed the original the H1, and added the H2 and later the smaller H3.

The H2's gross vehicle weight rating topped 8,500 pounds, making it a Class 3 truck exempt from passenger car safety rules and CAFE fuel economy tracking, at about 10 miles per gallon in the city. When gas hit $4 in 2008, demand collapsed. GM's 2009 bankruptcy deal to sell Hummer to China's Sichuan Tengzhong for a reported $150 million died in February 2010 without Beijing's approval, and the last H3 left Shreveport, Louisiana on May 24, 2010, for an Avis fleet order. After a 40-day strike in 2019, GM put $2.2 billion into its Detroit-Hamtramck plant and revived the name as the electric GMC Hummer EV.

• As a Class 3 truck, early H2s lacked standard child safety locks, child seat tethers, stability control and side curtain airbags.
• GM required Hummer dealers to build showrooms with oversized half Quonset hut roofs.
• By 2006 the brand sold in 33 countries, with H2 assembly in Kaliningrad, Russia, and Team Hummer won its class at the 2005 Baja 1000.
• Utah's Raser Technologies pitched a plug-in hybrid Hummer at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show aiming for 100 miles per gallon.
• The new Hummer EV, developed under Camaro revival engineer Al Oppenheiser, weighs over 9,000 pounds and debuted with a LeBron James Super Bowl ad.