11:07 am
China to GM: Thanks But No Thanks
Via Felix Salmon, the Chinese government reportedly plans to block GM’s sale of its Hummer brand to the Sichuan Tengzhong a Chinese company that heretofore had produced dump trucks:
Hummer, as an expensive, gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle, would not fit in with the government’s policy of encouraging energy-efficient vehicles, [Chinese state] radio said.
When something is too gas-inefficient even for the Chinese market, that’s saying something.
Setting aside the temptation to be snarky, I wonder whether this will have any impact on GM’s bankruptcy proceedings. Initial press reports had the sale garnering somewhere around $500 million for GM, which isn’t much in the context of its current debt, but it isn’t chump change either.
It will be interesting to see if another buyer now steps in. For the sake of the environment, I hope not.