Holden has been left as a big, red, glaring question mark following the sale of General Motors entire European operations after GM officially unloaded Opel and Vauxhall onto France’s PSA Group yesterday.
Holden itself has responded following the sale, but General Motors President Dan Ammann also addressed the matter during the 2017 Geneva Motor Show.
“What I want to emphasize is we are 100 percent committed to the business in Australia and New Zealand and we have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline and it’s going to be a really good period of time for the business down there,” Ammann told Car Advice.
Holden has long been an important facet of GM, not only in sales and market share but as a proving ground for executives and engineering talent, too, something Ammann touched on.
“All of you know there’s a lot of people inside GM that have a lot of history and linkage to Holden and there is nothing we want to see more than to for the business be really successful and prosper down there and we are totally committed to making that happen.”
He also squashed rumors of Holden ever being for sale or that GM was looking into phasing out the roaring lion to make way for Chevrolet.
Opel will still supply the Holden Astra and 2018 Holden NG Commodore as planned, but following those vehicles’ life cycles, there are no definite plans, according to Ammann.
“Clearly the current models that are just launching will turn through their full life cycle and what we do beyond that is yet to be determined,” he said.
Finally, with fears that the sale of Vauxhall would curb GM’s engineering efforts for right-hand drive vehicles, Ammann said there will be more RHD vehicles than ever coming from GM.
“As we have been developing the next generation of architectures globally we have increased not decreased the flexibility for RHD and made that a much easier thing to do so we remain totally committed to that,” he added.
What a brave new world indeed.
Comments
GM simply has to kill off the Holden brand. The need to that has never been clearer. GM of course needs to continue it efforts in becoming world player, but with just two brand names. Those two brand names are Cadillac for high end vehicles and Chevrolet for the balance of the world market.
GM is right in selling off Vauxhall and Opel. It was a right more when Pontiac and Oldsmobile were killed off but the natural process will be to slowly retire the brand name Holden which has no relevance in our Web based world.
GM will growing well once its focus is limited to just two brand names.
Regards
Carl
Sorry Carl your suggestion fails to recognize the long history of the Holden name. It may well have been tarnished in recent years but it still is very much an Australian institution whereas Chevrolet and all other brands are foreigners. Same story with Vauxhall in the UK.
Although Chevrolet has begun to re-enter foreign markets in the last decade or so, most people outside North and Latin America have past visions of large Chevrolets that were far from entry level cars. Simply because of the sheer size they were luxury vehicles and far better trimmed that their American counterparts. Chevrolet largely exited the foreign markets in the 1960s when they were huge and that is the perception that lingers. North Americans have watched as they shrunk and as such have revised their identity but foreign markets have not watched this transition.
This sort of message is critical for GM to announce, not only for Australia but all its global markets.
The withdrawal from the European market is giving GM much poor publicity. But maybe we do not realize the extent to which Opel was effectively insolvent. Likely GM has provided bankers guarantees for much of Opel’s debt and may not have been able to walk away from other obligations such as pensions through a liquidation. GM may simply have run out of options.
Seen in this light GM may have had no desire to leave the European market but the financial obligations it has had put it between a rock and hard place. If this is the case, share this news with us. At least there may be some sympathy for actions that could be seen as forced and imposed.
As the author of “On a Global Mission: The Automobiles of General Motors International”, the most extensive coverage ever devoted to GM’s global reach, I more than anyone want to have an understanding and sympathy for what led up to leaving Europe. Talk to us GM and we might be a little more understanding.
GM was 100% behind opel also!
I hope GM gets rid of holden in the future
“What I want to emphasize is we are 100 percent committed to the business in Australia and New Zealand and we have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline and it’s going to be a really good period of time for the business down there,” Ammann told Car Advice.
And as an Aussie – I believe him. I trust him and his GM executives to do the right thing !! NOT !!
The Federal Liberal Party were 100% behind the prats that triggered all this in the first place. (Abbott & Hockey) Right up until they shoved them under the bus! I saw GM do some unbelievable things in the “good old days” and now I wouldn’t trust them as far as could throw ’em..
Interesting that you should make that comment. When l read that statement from GM it reminded me of what politicians say just before they shaft someone.
So your saying that your really strong
“We are 100 percent committed to LaSalle.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Oldsmobile.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Pontiac.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Saturn.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Hummer.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Saab.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Vauxhall.”
“We are 100 percent committed to Opel.”
“We are now 100 percent committed to Holden.”
Love, General Motors