General Motors South Africa (GM SA) has been awarded an R18-billion contract to manufacture and export the United States-designed Hummer H3 vehicle, the company said on Wednesday.
”Vehicle export programmes … are a fundamental requirement for operating in South Africa,” Ian Nichols, planning director for GM SA, told reporters.
Production of the Hummer H3 2006 model will start in the fourth quarter of 2006 at the Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth. The facility currently produces Opel and Isuzu products.
The South African operation will produce right-hand-drive vehicles for the British, New Zealand, Australian and South African markets, and left-hand-drive vehicles will be exported to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
”Over the next three to four years, when we are fully ramped up we will be able to produce 10 000 H3s per annum,” said Nichols.
The contract will run from 2006 to 2012. It will create 450 jobs.
Initially, GM SA will source supplies from overseas, but later it plans to source parts locally.
Hadi El-Khouri, H3 vehicle line director, said a team had studied which product would be best for export from South Africa and decided on the H3.
Susan Docherty, general manager of Hummer, said in the past two years there has been a significant interest from the international community in buying the Hummer.
Originally designed for the US military, the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or ”Humvee”, was built to go almost anywhere and do almost anything, Docherty said.
In 1992, the Humvee was adopted for civilian use, as the Hummer H1.
It was then adapted as a more modern and comfortable H2 model. The H3 is the latest variant.
The vehicle has been sold mainly in the US and Canada.
The vehicle will be available in the South African market from mid-2007.
The US will continue to produce the Hummer H3, which will be destined for North America, Europe and the Middle East.
GM returned to South Africa just more than a year ago.
It has already invested R380-million into its South African operation, said Robert Socia, president and managing director of GM SA. — Sapa