Although the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show really was about the 2016 Opel Astra debut for General Motors, Australian media took at as an opportunity to sift through the information known on the future of Holden, and pull answers out of GM executives on the future of the brand.
Holden’s manufacturing arm will hit the lights in 2017, with a revamp of its portfolio with 24 new vehicles incoming by 2020. And, it seems the United States will also be a contributor to Holden’s new, global lineup, per GM CEO Mary Barra.
Barra made the comments when speaking to CarsGuide at the 2015 Frankfurt Show, confirming U.S. vehicle would be engineered for right-hand drive, and make their way to Holden in the future.
“We’re looking for whatever the right vehicles (are) that are going to round out the portfolios in very important countries that require right-hand drive.”
The publication speculates the most probable entries will be Buick and Opel SUVs. Though, we know the next-generation Chevrolet Equinox and a new Chevrolet crossover will replace the Holden Captiva 5 and Captiva 7 in the near future. The Corvette has also resurged as a likely contender to head to Oz.
But, the majority of future Holdens will still arrive via Opel, as close cousin Vauxhall ensures Opel vehicles are designed from the ground-up with right-hand drive in mind.
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Word is that Ford has 2000+ deposits and 20K+ “interested parties” for the new Mustang down under. In the UK the RHD Mustang is just starting to hit dealers with a reported 12 mo. waiting list. GM? Nothing like it available in those markets for the foreseeable future.
I hope that the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV will be produced with right hand drive to be sold in Australia, Japan, Great Britain, and in other nations to compete against the Nissan Leaf and many other small EVs. It can be sold as the Opel Bolt.
I can’t for the life of me work out why GM (& other car makers for that matter) don’t design and engineer into a build the capability to have both left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive options. To lock a new design into LHD only is to rob a maker of the option of selling that whole structure, and the models built on it into a market that could potentially buy thousands.
Australia is about to loose the Commodore, a ready made option from the Cadillac could fill that gap if it was available as a RHD. We’d love to be able to import the Camaro & Corvette too but they can’t be built in RHD! The mind boggles.
Pete This is what happens.
Ford has RHD as they have been strong in England and Australia so they got a pass. Chrysler has no money. They need new platforms and are just getting rehashed Fiat products at this point. Sergio is not reinvesting back into the car just the jeeps.
GM on the other hand when they started cars like the Alpha much of the old GM culture was still in place. They were short sighted and really did not want to spend the extra money to make a truly global platform. They were ok with a almost global platform. Now move to today where the new culture is cleaning up the old cultures mess. Part of that mess was Holden and the lack of foresight to provide for the RHD. From here out you will see all platforms now be built for both sides. It is not going to happen over night and it will take time to get some of this done but the sins will be reversed.
The old GM was being removed but their fingerprints are still on some things and Mary and Mark are working hard to remove the finger prints. That is why we are rebuilding Cadillac again in a more unlimited manor and why we will see changes to many other things.
The bad news is we don’t have RHD today due to poor past management. But now with the new people in there these products are understood and will be done with RHD. The platform cycles will be the main thing slowing things down but I suspect the Alpha will see a refresh much sooner than it normally would and the RHD will be done sooner than it normally would.
This common sense at last. It is the only way that GM is going too increase it’s market share. In my opinion, gm should have all of their major platforms available in RHD.
All of the alpha base products should have been available in RHD from the very start. GM management should know that global sales depends on diversity an options.
GM should have all Cadillac, Chevrolet and most Buick and GMC products should all have RHD variants since five years ago.