Auto things quieten down in December, don’t they? So nothing much happened this week – just a new female CEO at GM, an auto industry global first, the same company’s confirmation of an end to Australian manufacture and some signs of drawback in the alliance with PSA. Meh.
Mary Barra’s rise to the top suite in Renaissance Center was hinted at by her predecessor Dan Akerson back in September when he predicted that a woman would eventually run one of the three largest US-based automakers.
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“The Detroit Three are all run by non-car guys,” Akerson said in Detroit. “Someday, there will be a Detroit Three that’s run by a car gal.”
Barra sure is. Dad was a toolmaker at Pontiac for 39 years and she’s an engineer who landed her first job as in a Pontiac plant where there were few women and even fewer 18 year olds. “It was a rougher environment,” she said in an interview in March. “It makes you harder.” I started out in work in New Zealand a few years earlier, also in the motor trade, retail side, and it was pretty rough for the few women brave enough to enter the so-called ‘men’s worlds’ of the day. I recall pioneering women parts and service managers who had to deliver 120% of a bloke’s performance just to make the point but high points were reached eventually when Nissan named its first female national service manager and the first national head of Lexus was a woman. Barra takes things to new heights – and purely on merit.
As well as naming a new CEO, GM put the axe through Holden manufacturing in Australia from 2017, leading to speculation about Toyota’s future there as the one holdout (exit Mitsubishi, nee Chrysler, stage left in 2008 with Ford next in 2016) and that Holden could give way to Chevrolet down under. I grew up with Holden though, truth be told, I always preferred the classier and pricier big Vauxhalls we could also get until the early 1970s. Holden began as a protected species and remained that way for much of its existence so it’s no surprise that, once various government funded crutches were kicked away, it could not compete with cheap FTA-sponsored imports. Aussies will still get Holden cars but they won’t be locally made and that’s sad for the many workers involved and those affected out there in sectors such as components.
Speculation about the top man at Ford has also continued this week. Word is the board is getting a bit bored with it all and I imagine an expression ending “….or get off the pot” might soon be whispered in a certain former Boeing exec’s lughole if he don’t make up his mind and convey intent soon…
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By GlobalDataFinally, some intriguing developments in the PSA-GM alliance. Someone commented this week that GM didn’t have much luck with Fiat, either. On the other hand, ownership of Opel has lasted a while.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
