Bob Lutz’s VLF Is Building Brand-New Hummer H1s and Shipping Them to

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The Hummer H1 is back, brand new, and coming straight out of Detroit.

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The man responsible for this madness, at least in part, shouldn’t surprise you. It’s Bob Lutz, the 85-year-old industry wizard of Volt and Viper fame, who has struck up yet another business deal for his company, VLF Automotive. You may remember hearing about VLF, which includes designer Henrik Fisker and former Boeing executive Gilbert Villarreal, when it began converting Fisker plug-in hybrids into Corvette ZR1–powered sedans. VLF is building these cars, along with rebodied Viper and Mustang creations, at a small factory in Auburn Hills, Michigan. And now it’s building Hummers—or more precisely, since Hummer is still a General Motors trademark, the Humvee C-Series.

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Humvee Export, a five-person collaboration of Humvee enthusiasts and entrepreneurs based out of nearby Saint Clair, Michigan, has contracted VLF to assemble the trucks with GM powertrains, president John Costin told Car and Driver. One of those enthusiasts is a Frenchman, Paul Chedid, who runs a Cadillac and Corvette dealership in Paris and was the H1’s distributor in France. While GM dropped the civilian-spec Hummer H1 in 2006 and killed the Hummer brand in 2010, the vehicle’s contract manufacturer, AM General, has continued to build HMMWV (High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle) trucks for U.S. and foreign militaries. In 2013, AM General began offering the C-Series kit to individuals for $ 60,000, which includes all parts except the powertrain. Humvee Export sprang up that fall and has since secured importers to sell finished C-Series trucks in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and, as of January 2017, China.

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“There’s a niche market,” said Costin. “There are people who want to have the most fun at 5 or 6 mph.”

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If that’s you, don’t expect to get one here. Humvee Export won’t certify the truck for the U.S. market because it doesn’t fall under the recently passed Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act, which exempts kit-car builders from crash testing and EPA certification if they build licensed replicas of vehicles that were last built at least 25 years ago. The Humvee is at least that old, yet it’s technically still in production.

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The new Humvee looks just as it did when Arnold and Tupac flashed these four-ton rigs in Los Angeles back in the 1990s, expect that it shares the protruding snout of the current military version, which extends the front grille several inches. Costin says he plans to assemble up to 100 finished trucks by year’s end, primarily for wealthy buyers in China who won’t mind tearing through Beijing traffic in a $ 150,000-plus tank with 5-mpg fuel economy.

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“If they’ve got everything else, why shouldn’t they have one of these?” he says.

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The gray slant-back C-Series, which made its debut at the Shanghai auto show in April, brings back fond memories of Humvees climbing over parked cars and straddling entire lanes. The show example was trimmed with black and tan leather on the seats and doors, and there was a wood cargo box behind the back seats. Three trim levels—Bravo, Charlie, and Delta—include varying levels of luxury appointments such as steel doors and a six-speaker stereo. Four dictator-friendly paint schemes and four General Motors engines are available. Final prices haven’t been set.

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The 6.5-liter diesel V-8 engines resurface in varying strengths (190 horsepower and 385 lb-ft of torque; 205 horsepower and 440 lb-ft; and 250 horsepower and 440 lb-ft). GM’s current LS3 6.2-liter gasoline V-8 is available, too, with 430 horsepower and 424 lb-ft of torque and paired with a legacy 4L85-E four-speed automatic transmission. Humvee Export hasn’t said what gearbox it pairs with the diesels.

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No Assembly Required: A New Kit-Car Law Could Spawn a Repli-Mod Industry

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Plumber’s Special: A Hardnose Road-Tests a Hummer

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What I’d Do Differently: Bob Lutz

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Whatever Humvee Export manages to sell overseas, at least it’s helping a small group of Michigan autoworkers stay employed as they crank out VLF’s strange assortment of custom vehicles. As we’ve said before, never bet against Bob Lutz.

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