Hummer’s roots trace back to 1971, when the American Motors Co. established AM General. In 1983 the U.S. government awarded AM General a multibillion dollar contract to build its High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), or Humvee, for military use. In 1992 AM General was purchased by the Renco Group Inc., which introduced a civilian version of the HMMWV, the Hummer. General Motors and AM General reached an agreement in December 1999, under which GM would market and distribute Hummers worldwide. In 2009 GM sold the brand’s rights to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., maker of trucks and highway construction equipment.
