GM Holden on Thursday confirmed a new export deal for South Korea following GM Daewoo’s announcement at the Seoul Motor Show that it planned to add a premium sedan to its product range.
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The production version of GM Daewoo’s L4X show car is scheduled to go on sale in Korea in 2008 and will be based on Holden’s successful WM-series Caprice, itself a derivative of the Australian automaker’s core V6 rear-drive Commodore large sedan model.
The new vehicle, tailored to the demands of the Korean market, will be built at Holden’s assembly plant in Elizabeth, South Australia, with a ‘global’ V6 engine from the company’s engine plant at Fishermans Bend in Victoria.
This is the second vehicle export arrangement between GM Daewoo and GM Holden. In 2005 Holden shipped nearly 2,000 of the previous model WL Statesman to Korea where it was sold as the GM Daewoo Statesman.
GM Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney, said: “This is another example of General Motors’ ability to leverage its global resources to satisfy a local market need.
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By GlobalData“GM Daewoo and its customers will benefit from GM Holden’s acknowledged expertise in developing and manufacturing rear wheel drive vehicles.
“[We designed and engineered our new VE and WM ranges to appeal] to both local and overseas markets. We are starting to see the returns from that with our Australian–built cars currently being exported to every continent except Antarctica.
“Exports of cars and engines continue to be a core component of GM Holden’s future strategy for growth and today’s confirmation of new exports to Korea further expands our growing presence in overseas markets.”
Holden has exported over 772,000 vehicles in the last 50 years.
In the past two years, its has exported over 106,000 vehicles compared to less than 67,000 throughout the entire 1990s.
Last year, Holden achieved its best-ever year in the Middle East, exporting over 31,000 Chevrolet-badged cars to the region.
It recently announced export of the Commodore-derived Pontiac G8 to the United States with production to begin at Elizabeth later this year.
Vehicles manufactured by GM Holden were sold overseas in 2006 under the GM brands of Chevrolet (Brazil, Middle East, and South Africa), Pontiac (United States), and Holden (New Zealand).
