It came as a shock when Motoring first uncovered a secret bid to save not only the Holden Elizabeth factory, but the beloved Zeta-based Holden Commodore locals have come to love.
Guido Dumarey, a Belgian entrepreneur who currently builds automatic transmissions for General Motors and Holden, officially confirmed the rumors with Motoring: he wants to purchase the Elizabeth factory, and continue producing a rear-wheel drive Commodore.
“Everything is planned. The next step is to inform all the parties with the right plan, and it happens next year. The announcement is that they will close in the end of 2017. In the first six months of next year we must work very hard to find solutions. Two thousand and sixteen is the key year. After ’16 we must not think about it, because all the programs have started to stop and it’s too late,” he said in an interview.
Not only does Dumarey want to save the Elizabeth factory and the underpinnings as many have come to know it, he wants to create a legitimate business out of it. He believes the Zeta platform could be used to develop a range of rear- and all-wheel drive vehicles for local sale and export sale across the globe.
“The auto industry in Australia is in fact a premium auto industry, a rear-wheel drive industry,” Dumarey said.
“To me rear-wheel drive is premium. I think with the platform you have from Zeta… It’s the perfect platform.”
Dumarey has not officially approached GM or Holden with a bid, rather, he has taken the time to carefully plan his moves, working for political support in Australia for such his bid to be successful. He must obtain licensing rights for the Zeta platform and tooling, and his vehicles could not be called Commodore.
It wouldn’t be the first time Dumarey turned a floundering operation into a flourishing one. The entrepreneur previously purchased the GM Strasbourg plant, which was scheduled to close in 2014 and shed 1,000 jobs.
Dumarey secured licensing to develop the 6L40 and 45 automatic transmissions, and the plant is now ready to add an additional 350 employees and is preparing to build he 8HP50 automatic transmission for ZF. BMW is now its biggest customer.
Zeta could be a case of die another day in 2016. We’ll have to wait and see.
Comments
Although I don’t believe Guido Dumarey and associates will be successful in their bid to save the Holden Elizabeth plant, they do have my total support! I’m sure Holden already has the next Commodore (in all its FWD-based, Insignia-covered glory) well into development and ready for production. Why would Dumarey not want to use the Alpha platform? It’s lighter and more efficient. But if they can work some magic with the Zeta platform, then so be it!! If it works, it could have definite possibilities!
Save Holden manufacturing and the RWD sedan!
The tooling is already in place for Zeta (Huge $$$) and since it’s an outgoing platform, he’d be the sole manufacturer whereas he probably couldnt use Alpha if he wanted to due to GM licensing. Also you could squeeze a crossover on the Zeta, not the Alpha.
Overall sounds like a win for enthusiasts, a wind for Austrailians, and a win for GM. Could be exciting to see where it leads!
Alpha can’t be built RHD and its successor doesn’t arrive until sometime between 2019 and 2021.
Besides, GM is done with Zeta once Holden Assembly closes down. A lot easier to license an old platform from GM than to get manufacturing rights for a current platform. Plus Alpha isn’t flexible or wide enough compared to Zeta…
Maintaining a GM platform outside GM is very difficult. NEVS took years of idle and countless millions from the Chinese government, to basically take the Pontiac G6 back into production.
This strategy has one big problem – how do you sustain platform development? NEVS is basically offering the Saab 9-3 as a solution to fill gaps in Chinese and Turkish FWD commuter cars, where GM’s 10 year old platform is still better to the average car they can develop.
But Zeta is heavy and dated in a fiercely competitive premium market. The only way it will make sense is if they can offer to sell Zeta cars in cheaper segments. And that would likely discourage GM from offering it up for sale – who (in GM) wants a 2.0T VF competing with the sale of a Chevy Malibu?
We want it to happen, but I think it’s highly unlikely… unless Oz is under so much political pressure from the blowback, that it deficit finances the whole thing.
Chris you are right that this is going to be a tough deal.
Making a car is much more difficult than building a transmission. Just so many systems, regulations and cost of development if you plan to upgrade.
The only way that something like this could work is if he makes an alliance with another MFG. The most likely would be a Chinese MFG looking for a way into the country. Kind of a Trojan Horse like deal.
I would love to see this work for everyone down under but it is not all that simple and there has to be more to this than just this guy buying them if GM would even sell.
My fear is if he goes it alone the price will be more than anyone would pay.
He’s smart, clearly wants to copy what he did with the transmission plant. This would start with Zeta, and end up within a few years doing something else.
No business man plans to produce Zeta forever.
Every decision-making process requires complex and thorough discussions and if they wish to proceed with the plan, then it must have been because of a rational basis. To continue with the car manufacturing process can mean a lot of things and the course must have been well-thought through.