A friend of mine is currently in London, which is a
medium-size city located somewhere in Europe, and she sent me this picture of a
car parked in a tremendously upscale neighborhood. Initially, I thought it was
one of those Hummer-lookalike golf carts -- but on a closer look, it turns out
to be far more involved than that. So what exactly is it?
I went searching, and I discovered
something amazing -- and something I absolutely didn't know. You may have
thought the Hummer brand was
dead, but it isn't. It's alive in this thing, which is a fully electric car sold exclusively in London. No, it's
not a knockoff or a fake: This is an actual "Hummer" vehicle.
As usual, allow me to explain.
Here's the situation: As you probably know, Hummer sold
giant SUVs (the H1) in the United States throughout the 1990s before being
taken over by General Motors and branching into slightly-less-giant SUVs (the
H2) in the early 2000s, followed by actually-normal-sized SUVs in the mid-2000s
(the H3). But then gas prices hiked, and the economic crisis set in, and Hummer
became public enemy number one. People hated them. Many people still do.
General Motors stopped building them.
Although a Chinese company then attempted to acquire the
Hummer brand, it fell through -- and General Motors still owns it. But since
the final H3 rolled off its assembly line in Louisiana, GM hasn't done anything
with the Hummer brand ... until this thing.
This little vehicle isn't actually
manufactured by General Motors, but rather by a company called MEV, which stands
for My Electric Vehicle. But while it may not be a GM vehicle, it
uses the Hummer name -- and styling cues -- under license from General Motors.
In other words, this is an officially licensed, completely legitimate "Hummer."
And it's the only commercially available vehicle to use the Hummer name since
the brand was shuttered in 2010.
So what exactly is this thing? Well,
in London, there's a pricey "Congestion Charge" which taxes vehicles
based on how much they pollute. Electric cars are free -- and the result is
that small, city-friendly luxury cars (and the G-Wiz, made famous around the
world on Top Gear) have become pretty popular in the heart of
London. Apparently, the Hummer HX is one of those cars: a tiny, city-friendly
electric vehicle that's easy to park and exempt from the congestion charge but
has burly and muscular styling like a real Hummer.
As for the particulars on the HX, it's fully electric and
it can travel around 60 miles between charges. It has disc brakes in front, LED
lights all around, available air conditioning, and, according to the website,
"the steering wheel centre is fitted with a horn." Wonderful.
And now you know. Just when you thought it was gone for
good, the Hummer brand is alive and kicking in the place you least expected it
to be: The most expensive parts of London, in the form of a tiny electric car.
