The axing of Pontiac may not mean the end of US-bound exports from General Motors’ Holden unit in Australia, according to a local media report.
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Up to 40,000 Chevrolet-badged Commodore police cruisers could head to the US each year in a deal larger than the now-terminated North American export programme which supplied Pontiac G8-branded sports sedans and was set to ship a pickup truck for the 2010 model year, Australian auto industry publication GoAuto News said.
GoAuto said a plan to supply ‘high-tech’ Australian-made patrol cars to US law enforcement agencies – led by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) – could be joined by more exports to Canada, the UK and the Middle East.
Holden has been shipping Chevrolet-branded Commodores to the Middle East for about a decade, where the model line initially replaced the North American-sourced Chevy Lumina. Some of these cars have been sold as police cruisers and Holden also has plenty of experience supplying police fleets in Australian states and neighbouring New Zealand. Commodores are also exported in smaller numbers to Brazil and South Africa where they are also sold as Chevys while the previous generation Monaro coupe was shipped to the UK as a Vauxhall.
There is still potential for the Holden Ute (‘utility’ or pickup truck) to be sold in the US as a GMC product where it would be a modern successor to the car-based Chevrolet El Camino offered decades ago while the doomed Pontiac G8 line could be revived as a Chevrolet range in the US, GoAuto added.
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By GlobalDataThe Commodore would effectively replace Ford’s ancient Crown Victoria as the vehicle of choice for many US police departments, which require large, V8-powered rear-drive sedans, the report said.
The Crown Victoria is now a fleet-only model in the US which will end production next year and there had been earlier suggestions it could be replaced by a left-hand drive version of Ford Australia’s Falcon, the Commodore’s key rival ‘down under’. But Ford Australia has never produced left-hand drive versions.
While some US police departments have adopted Dodge’s new Charger, the Crown Victoria still attracts 60,000 annual sales for Ford, representing a potentially massive export opportunity for Holden, Go Auto said.
Holden reportedly is not talking up the Commodore’s US police export prospects too much but national media relations manager Scott Whiffin told GoAuto this week that a Pontiac G8-based LAPD prototype produced by Port Melbourne-based National Safety Agency (NSA) had “enormous” potential.
“That’s certainly something that is being looked at very closely,” Whiffin said. “We are looking at all opportunities.
“Holden has a really good reputation for seeking out opportunities in the marketplace and benefiting from them, and our work starts now in terms of finding new opportunities for this vehicle. The law enforcement opportunity is one and certainly we’re looking at that without going too far too fast.”
GoAuto said NSA had developed its police cruiser prototype with the LAPD and was soon to show it to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, while there had also been interest from the UK, the Middle East and Asia.
NSA operations director Des Bahr told GoAuto his company was in talks with nine separate US law enforcement jurisdictions, which together represent a fleet of up to 40,000 vehicles a year.
“The potential is enormous, given that we’ve got nine jurisdictions interested and even that alone is tens of thousands of cars,” he said this week.
“They are interested in the project to determine whether this, which could be deemed as a replacement for the Crown Victoria, is suitable for their environment.”
