Detroit News Wire Services

General Motors Corp. is adding a pickup version of its Hummer H3 sport-utility vehicle at a Louisiana assembly plant as the automaker tries to stem the brand’s declining sales, Bloomberg News reported today.

GM will invest $73 million in the plant that builds the Hummer H3 and Chevrolet Colorado pickup to manufacture the H3 T pickup, GM spokesman Nick Richards said. The new model will be smaller than GM’s full-size Chevrolet Silverado pickup and bigger than the Colorado, he said.

Smaller Hummer models are part of Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner’s strategy to change the brand’s reputation for excess as gasoline prices have risen. GM eliminated the largest Hummer, the five-ton H1, Bloomberg said.