An export boost from the US is expected to help General Motors’ Australian unit Holden back into profit after recently posting a $A144m after-tax annual loss, according to local and overseas reports.
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Chairman and managing director Denny Mooney, was upbeat about Holden’s future financial prospects, based on an imminent export deal with the United States that could see as many as 30,000 sporty SS versions of the VE Commodore heading to North America as Pontiacs by the end of the year, according to local online publication GoAuto News, which speculated the deal would be announced ahead of, or during, next month’s Chicago motor show.
Just-auto has seen US reports of planned VE imports of between 30,000 and 50,000 a year and Mooney reportedly did not contradict this.
But he told GoAuto News that Holden’s ultimate export volume would be dictated by available capacity at its Adelaide production plant where the axing of a third shift (and the bailout of a failed supplier) contributed substantially to Holden’s large dip into the red.
“We’re not going to add capacity – we have two shifts and we’ll stay two shifts,” he told GoAuto News. “Assuming the Middle East volume stays strong and our New Zealand volumes stay at historic levels I suspect that we will be capacity-constrained.”
The report said the Commodore SS would be rebadged as the Pontiac G8 with the division’s distinct ‘corporate’ front- and rear-end treatments –widely believed to mimic the Solstice roadster – but the underpinnings and drivetrain will be Commodore (which uses a locally made US-designed V6 and imported GM US V8s).
Mooney reportedly said the deal is crucial to Holden’s plan to maintain local manufacturing viability with the potential that up to 50% of Commodores will be exported in the future. Historically Holden’s export volumes have been around 20% of output.
Mooney also told GoAuto News the sedan segment in the US is 20 times bigger than the coupe segment Holden was in with the previous Monaro coupe-based GTO it shipped to the US from 2004-2006 in volumes that never met expectations. He also noted the G8 was a new car (it was launched as a Holden down under in mid-2006) while the GTO was in the middle of its Australian life cycle when launched in the US.
Holden expects to sell about 60,000 Commodore and Statesman models in Australia and, with an annual production capacity of around 150,000 cars, there’s room to build at least 30,000 vehicles for Pontiac in the US, GoAuto News calculated.
Ford Australia, which makes a RHD-only Commodore rival called the Falcon, and a Territory SUV spin-off, has recently announced an increased emphasis on exports and will develop a commercial vehicle platform for global sale with pickup trucks likely to be the first models introduced.
It is also expected to engineer its next Falcon, due out in early 2008, for left-hand drive. Ford does export some Falcon and Territory models, but only to RHD markets, and, like Holden, has seen domestic sales of its locally-made large cars fall due to high fuel prices. Its smaller models are fully imported (as are Holden’s with sourcing changing from GM Europe to GM Daewoo).
