The Hummer H3s will soon become available in South Africa and GM South Africa is on track to begin exporting the first right hand drive vehicles next month to markets in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Africa.

GMSA planning director Ian Nicholls recently said that 10 000 Hummer H3s would be exported this year: "We began exporting left-hand versions of the H3 in November last year to markets in the Middle East, Europe and Israel. Our contract is now fully on stream and we will be meeting demand for both left and right hand drive markets."

"In addition there are number of markets which we are currently not exporting to, that have recently shown an interest in the H3. These stretch from Asia to South America, he added.

Meanwhile, plans to get the right-hand drive H3 models to local customers are on track, with production having started at the end of March with one shift. The range, which begins with the R374 000 entry-level model and tops out at R440 000 for the Advanced Auto model, will be distributed via a dedicated footprint of seven dealers that will grow to fifteen in the future.

"We are excited about the first right-hand drive Hummer coming off the line. This line has created 500 extra jobs in the area since we started production on the left-hand drive Hummer H3 last year," said GMSA vehicle assembly operations director Mike Pearton.

"In fact the original plant covered an area of 46,900 m2 on a 24 hectare site, and this has been extended over the years, almost doubling in size to cover 75,625 square metres, on an increased 37 hectare site," Nicholls was quoted as saying.

Nicholls added that the project had involved teams from Detroit, Brazil and South Africa: "This has truly been a global project and has involved employees from across the globe in our Engineering, Purchasing and Manufacturing divisions."

Looking into the future, Nicholls said that it was too soon to speculate on whether GM South Africa would be awarded additional export contracts. "We are now involved in the early stages of global vehicle development programmes which have created opportunities for South Africa to be part of the global assembly footprint. We will be assessing opportunities to further grow our business through the acquisition of vehicle export programmes," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Goodyear South Africa's national manager of original equipment, Norman Newcombe announced that the Uitenhage-based company was delighted with its appointment as the official supplier of tyres for the H3.

"Goodyear South Africa's Eastern Cape factory is one of only two plants in the world to manufacture this the P265/R16 Wrangler RT/S and we are thrilled that ours have been selected," Newcombe said.

"The decision is a solid vote of confidence in Goodyear South Africa's capabilities and facilities (and) this tyre is first for our plant - the appointed Wrangler is an additional size to the lineup produced at Goodyear's plant in Uitenhage and has come at a substantial investment in equipment and in training," he added.