AM General
AM General LLC is an American manufacturer of commercial and military vehicles and passenger cars.
The company, based in South Bend, Indiana, is known today primarily as a developer and manufacturer of the HMMWV military vehicle and civilian offshoot of the Hummer H1. In addition to the HMMWV, the company produced in its sole plant in Mishawaka SUV Hummer H2 for General Motors. The production of the Hummer H1 was discontinued in June 2006, which the H2 2010.
AM General also provides spare parts and maintenance training for all products, as well as technical support and spare parts for other military vehicles as the HMMWV (eg for M1 Abrams ).
History
The origins of AM General lead back to the " General Products Division " of Studebaker, which was bought along with lucrative defense contracts from Kaiser Industries, as a Studebaker in 1966 retired from the automotive industry. 1970, in turn, Kaiser also moved from the automotive industry back, and the American Motors Corporation (AMC ) acquired Kaiser Jeep from Kaiser Industries. 1971 AMC changed the " General Products Division " in the subsidiary AM General Corporation to. The intention behind this was to AM General to give the autonomy that was necessary to carry out government orders for commercial vehicles reliable. AM General produced buses, trucks and off-road vehicles for military, government and commercial customers.
In 1979, AM General on behalf of the U.S. Army with the development of a suitable 1.25 -ton multi-purpose all-terrain vehicle, which should replace the M151 and other light armored wheeled vehicles. After the delivery of test vehicles in 1981, the company began in 1983 with the serial production of the HMMWV.
After AMC was bought in 1982 by Renault, AMC had the AM General Corporation resign because U.S. government regulations prohibited it to award defense contracts to companies that are owned by foreign governments - the French Government at the time was part owner of Renault. In 1983, AM General, therefore, acquired by the LTV Corporation and managed as a wholly owned subsidiary of the LTV Aerospace and Defense Company. 1984, the AM General headquarters of American Motors AMTEK Building was moved to Livonia, two years later to South Bend, where was the main manufacturing plant.
In 1989, AM General a the remaining activities in the commercial light truck box and closed the plant in Chippewa Avenue ( South Bend ), which were adopted in 1964 by the predecessor companies Kaiser- Jeep Studebaker. In 1990, the office buildings were moved from the Chippewa Avenue in the center of South Bend, where they are since then.
The HMMWV enjoyed while at the U.S. soldiers during the military action in Panama (1989-90 ), and especially during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 great popularity. In Iraq, about 20,000 HMMWV were in use. The level of awareness, the military vehicle in these military operations in the public won, encouraged AM General to 1992, been converted into for the civilian market version of the vehicle called Hummer produce.
In 1999, AM General, the Contractors General Engine Products LLC (GEP ) and built a new plant in Franklin, Ohio, to produce 6.5 -liter diesel engines. The motors are sold to General Motors and other clients as well as used for AM General vehicles.
In December 1999, AM General and General Motors signed an agreement for the joint production, marketing and distribution policy on the Hummers. GM took over the world exclusive rights to the Hummer brand name and called the vehicle in Hummer Hummer H1 for. 2002 AM General began, developed by GM SUV Hummer H2 in a new factory in Mishawaka to manufacture. In June 2006, the production of the Hummer H1 was set, the H2 is further prepared for GM. AM General uses hereby vacated manufacturing capacity for the production of the HMMWV, General Motors sold in 2007 still Hummer H1 from the last production series.
2002 AM General changed his business in the form of a limited liability company ( llc. ). In August 2004, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings and the Renco Group announced the establishment of a community owner to take over with the goal of AM General LLC. In 2007, AM General with General Dynamics Land Systems, the joint venture General Tactical Vehicles to participate in the tender of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps for the development of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle ( JLTV ), which will replace the HMMWV in the two branches of the armed forces to some extent. 2010 AM General delivered the last 2600 Humvees to the U.S. Army, which thus completes its total requirement of 150,000 HMMWVs.