AM General

AM Generalis an American heavy vehicle andcontractautomotive manufacturer based inSouth Bend, Indiana.It is best known for the civilianHummerand the militaryHumveethat are assembled inMishawaka, Indiana.From 1974–1979 the company also manufacturedtransit buses,making more than 5,400 of them.

AM General LLC

AM General's Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus, in Indiana, 2021
Company type	Portfolio company
Industry	Automotive
Predecessor	Kaiser Jeep
Founded	1971(1971)
Founder	American Motors
Headquarters	South Bend, Indiana , U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	James Cannon (CEO)
Products	HMMWV M35 trucks M939 trucks Humvee C-Series Hummer H2 Mercedes-Benz R-Class
Revenue	740,000,000 United States dollar (2012)
Parent	KPS Capital Partners(2020–)
Subsidiaries	General Engine Products General Transmission Products
Website	amgeneral

AM General has also been a provider of vehicles for theCUCVprogram carried out by theUnited States Armed Forces.

History

Beginning

AM General traces its roots to theStandard Wheel CompanyofTerre Haute, Indiana,which expanded in 1903 to include theOverland AutomotiveDivision.In 1908,John North Willyspurchased the Overland company, then based inIndianapolis, Indiana,and renamed itWillys-OverlandMotors. In the 1940s, as Willys, it collaborated withFordto develop a vehicle toUS Armyspecifications. It then mass-produced that vehicle as "America's first four-wheel-drive, one-fourth-ton, tactical utility truck" —theJeepofWorld War IIfame.In 1953,Kaiser Motorspurchased Willys-Overland, changing its name first to Kaiser-Willys Motor Company, and in 1963, toKaiser-JeepCorporation. In 1970, it was purchased byAmerican Motors Corporation(AMC). In July 2020,KPS Capital Partnersacquired the company.

Defense and Government Products Division

In 1964, Kaiser-Jeep purchased theStudebaker facilities on Chippewa AvenueinSouth Bend, Indiana,which included Studebaker's "General Products Division", along with its substantial defense contracts.

At the time, Kaiser had been awarded aUS$87 million Army truck contract, and under government pressure, agreed to perform the work at the South Bend plant it had recently acquired from Studebaker.

American Motors

American Motors Corporation(AMC) purchased the Jeep Corporation from Kaiser in 1970 when Kaiser decided to leave the auto business.

In 1971, AMC made the General Products Division ofJeep(producing military trucks as well as contract and non-commercial vehicles) awholly owned subsidiaryand renamed it "AM General Corporation".

American Motors ceased to function as an independentautomakerin 1982 when a controlling interest was purchased byRenault.

US government regulations at that time forbade ownership ofdefense contractorsby foreign governments—and Renault was partially owned by the French government.

LTV Corporation

In 1983,LTV Corporationbought AM General and established it as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1984, its headquarters moved from the American Motors AMTEK Building inDetroit,Michigan,toLivonia, Michigan,and two years later to South Bend, Indiana, where primary manufacturing operations were located.

Renco Group

In 1992, AM General was sold toRenco Group,which in 2002 converted it to alimited liability company.

Hummer brand

In 1984 AM General built a separate factory at 13200 McKinley Hwy in Mishawaka for HMMWV production.

In 1992 AM General began marketing the HMMWV to the civilian market under theHummerbrand. In 1999, GM acquired the rights to the brand and continued production of the original civilian Hummer as theH1until June 2006.

TheHummer H2went on the market in 2002, and was produced until January 2009. It was designed and marketed by GM, but manufactured by AM General at the Mishawaka plant. AM General did not build the H3 model.

GM was sued early in 2003 byDaimlerChrysler,owners of theJeepbrand, for the resemblance of the Hummer's seven-slot grille to Jeep's.The lawsuit was dismissed after acknowledgment of the shared corporate history of AMC and Jeep.GM in turn sued boutique automaker Avanti Motor Corporation of Cancun, Mexico after it introduced the Studebaker XUV at the Chicago Auto show in 2002. GM said Avanti infringed on the Hummer looks by planning a vehicle that closely resembled the Hummer. It seemed the AM General Hummer line had gone full circle back to the original Studebaker General Products Division which was responsible for all military contracts.

2004–present

On August 20, 2004, it was announced thatRonald Perelman'sMacAndrews & Forbescompany would form a joint venture with AM General's then-owner, Renco Group, to give Perelman 70% ownership. The deal reportedly cost close to US$1 billion.

In 2008, AM General and theVehicle Production Group(VPG), ofTroy, Michigan,announced that contracts had been signed for AM General to begin producing purpose-built taxi-cabs in 2009.Actual production would not begin until October 2011. The first vehicle off the line was presented to Marc Buoniconti, a former linebacker forThe Citadelwho was partially paralyzed in 1985.

In May 2010,Azure Dynamicsannounced it had chosen AM General to assemble its electric drivetrain forFord Transit Connectvehicles for the North American market at its Livonia, Michigan, factory.

In September 2013, AM General reached an agreement to purchase theUnited States Department of Energy's secured loan to theVehicle Production Group(VPG). Prior to this, AM General acted as the sole vehicle assembler for VPG. As a result of this transaction, AM General created a wholly owned company, Mobility Ventures LLC, to operate the Mobility Vehicle-1 (MV-1) business and receive all VPG assets.

In 2015, production of theMercedes-Benz R-Classbegan at the Mishawaka assembly plant.Without this deal, "the German automaker would likely have had to shut down production of the vehicle, currently only sold in China."Production ended in October 2017.

In July 2020, it was revealed thatinvestment companyKPS Capital Partnershad reached an agreement to acquire AM General from its previous owner,MacAndrews & Forbes.

AM General submitted a prototype to become theUnited States Postal Service'sNext Generation Delivery Vehicle,but their entry was not chosen.

Products

Jeep Dispatcher 100

1975 AM General RWD postal delivery van

Another familiar product from the AM General line was theJeep DJ-5 series—a purpose-built "Dispatch Jeep" 2-wheel drive (RWD) version of theJeep CJ-5—used in huge numbers as a right-hand drive mail delivery vehicle by theUnited States Postal Service.

Buses

A 1976 AM General bus of Tri-Met, in Portland, Oregon, showing AM General logo on front

TheAM General Metropolitanbuseswere manufactured for city transit use from 1974 until 1979, producing a total of 5,431 buses (including 219electric trolley buses).The Metropolitan was built under a 1971 agreement withFlyer IndustriesofWinnipeg,Manitoba; AM General licensed the rights to build and market theWestern Flyer D700for the US market. The D700 itself was similar in design to the contemporaneousGM New Look buses.The front end of the D700 was restyled and thus the resulting Metropolitan was not simply a Flyer design built under license but rather a jointly designed vehicle. Flyer later adopted the design changes for its own line as themodels D800 and E800.Buses were built in lengths of either 35 ft (10.7 m) or 40 ft (12.2 m), and widths of 96 in (2,438 mm) or 102 in (2,591 mm).The model numbers reflected the chosen dimensions; for example, model "10240" indicated a 102-inch wide, 40-foot long bus. Suffixes "A" or "B" were used for later models to indicate certain options. In total, 3,571 40-foot diesel buses and 1,641 35-foot diesel buses were produced.

Articulated buses

AMANarticulated busin Seattle that was completed by AM General

In 1977–1979, AM General also worked under a partnership withMANof Germany to buildSG 220articulated busesfor US transit systems. MAN fabricated the bodyshells in Germany and shipped them to the US for AM General for final assembly.Two different lengths were offered, 55 ft (16.8 m) and 60 ft (18.3 m); 93 buses were built to the shorter length while the rest were 60 feet long. By October 1978,the company discontinued bus production with the last unit completed in March 1979.The total number built was just under 400 (392or 399), the largest group by far being 150 for Seattle'sMetro Transit.MAN subsequently set up its own factory for US production inCleveland, North Carolina.

Trolleybuses

Production of completemotor buses(and of any two-axle motor buses) had ended in 1978 and aside from the fitting-out of the last articulated MAN shells, the only production in 1979 was two batches oftrolleybuses(and the only such vehicles ever built by the company).These were all 40-foot (12.2 m) vehicles, model 10240T: 110 trackless trolleys for thePhiladelphia trolleybus system,operated bySEPTA;and 109 for theSeattle trolleybus system,operated byMetro Transit(now King County Metro). One of the latter has been preserved since its retirement in 2003 by King County Metro (seeKing County Metro fleet).

Development and production of the HMMWV

AM General HMMWV in Iraq

In 1979, AM General began preliminary design work on theM998 Series High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle(HMMWV, pronounced Humvee), a 1.25-ton truck intended to replace theM151and otherLight Utility Vehicles.The US Army awarded AM General a prototype contract in 1981 with development and operational testing conducted over a five-month period in 1982. In March 1983, AM General won an initial $1.2 billion contract to produce 55,000 Humvees to be delivered in five basic models and 15 different configurations over a five-year period.

Production began at theMishawaka, Indiana,assembly plant in the fall of 1984 and the first deliveries were made in early 1985. The total international production by mid-1991 was more than 72,000. Since 1991, an additional 20,000 HMMWVs ordered brought total international production to 100,000 in March 1995.

Late in 2000, AM General was awarded another contract for 2,962 M998A2 series trucks. The contract contained six single-year options running to the fiscal year 2007 and continues to be renewed. Nearly 250,000 units have been produced.

Humvees feature full-time four-wheel drive, an independent suspension, steepapproach and departure angles,60-percent grade ability and 16 inches (406 mm) of ground clearance. More recent production models include the M1151, M1152, M1165, and M1167. As of 2015, Humvees are in use by the US Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy. The combined fleet numbers 140,000.More than 50 nations have bought these vehicles.

The Humvee's replacement, a completely newJoint Light Tactical Vehicle(JLTV) design, has been in production byOshkosh Corporationsince 2016.AM General was unsuccessful in its bid for this $30-billion 25-year contract, and it is now focused on military Humvee support (they still outnumber JLTVs by three to one) and development of a new ambulance model.

Other military vehicles

AM General also acquiredDepartment of Defensecontracts for medium and heavy trucks, including theM151 series,2 1/2 tonM35 series,and 5 tonM809 seriesin the 1970s then theM939 seriesin the 1980s.

In 2005, AM General was contracted to take over militarization, sales, and marketing ofLSSVvehicles.

External links

• Official website