The Hummer HX Electric Car Is the Revival of the Hummer Brand

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.

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