Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once epitomised America's love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy-equipment maker.

General Motors Co and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp finally signed the much-anticipated deal for GM to sell the brand on Friday.

Tengzhong will get an 80 per cent stake in the company, while Hong Kong investor Suolang Duoji, who indirectly owns a big stake in Tengzhong through an investment company, will get 20 per cent. The investors will also get Hummer's nationwide dealer network.

Financial terms were not disclosed, although a person briefed on the deal said the sale price was around US$150 million.

The person did not want to be identified because the terms were being kept private. GM's bankruptcy filing last summer said that the brand with military roots could bring in US$500 million or more.

Suolang Duoji also is the controlling shareholder and chairman of Lumena Resources Corp, a Hong Kong, listed mining company.

GM and Tengzhong said in a statement that the transaction still must be approved by the US and Chinese governments. Chinese regulators initially expressed reservations about Tengzhong's ability to run such an enterprise.

Hummer's current management team will stay with the new company, which will be headquartered either in Detroit or suburban Auburn Hills, Michigan.

James Taylor, the GM executive who has run Hummer recently, will remain as its chief executive officer.

Taylor said in an interview with The Associated Press that he knows resurrecting the brand will be difficult, but the key will be quickly rolling out more fuel-efficient models that get over 20 mpg.

"I'm not in any kind of denial that we have a very steep uphill challenge in front of us," Taylor said.

Hummer, he said, has been in a state of "suspended animation" since June 2008 when GM announced it would be reviewed for sale or closure. Since then, its future has been uncertain and it got no marketing support or new products. Financing for leases, a big part of its luxury market, also dried up, Taylor said.

loyal customer

Still, GM sold 1,000 Hummers in some months, proving that buyers are out there.

"There's still a loyal customer base underneath there that loves Hummer," he said.

Hummer hopes to keep buying fuel-efficient engines and transmissions from GM, but can seek them elsewhere, Taylor said.

He said the brand has been unfairly tagged as a symbol of the American gas guzzler, saying other vehicles get worse mileage.

He wants to make sure "at least we aren't a victim of misinformation that we stand alone as the ultimate bad guy in the space, which we aren't."

Hummer, whose smallest model gets 16 miles per gallon (14.7 litres per 100 kilometres) in combined city and highway driving, sold well until the middle part of this decade when fuel prices began to rise. Sales peaked at 71,524 in 2006.

But only 8,193 Hummers have been sold in the US through the first nine months of the year. That is down 64 per cent from a year earlier. And only 426 Hummers were sold nationwide last month, according to Autodata Corp.