The president of General Motors’ International Operations, Tim Lee, says the future or the fate of the Commodore rests in the hands of the Australian Federal Government.
The outlook of the homegrown Commodore was cloudy last week after a union representing engineers claimed the next model due in 2014 would be the last – and future models would be engineered overseas.
When asked to comment on the accuracy of the leaks and the likelihood of the 2018 Commodore being transformed into a front-drive mid-sized sedan, Lee told Motoring.com.au:
“You tell me when Australia locks down their social policy on C02 … and mileage requirements, you tell me when the government decides exactly how they want to move forward in terms of working with the automotive industry, and then I can answer that question,” he said.
“We haven’t made all of our portfolio decisions out in the … 2017 2018 timeline. What we need to understand is what will be the social policy in the country of Australia. What will be the industrial policy in the country of Australia.
“When we can start locking down these external variables then we’ll be able to do our product planning in a much more robust way. So it’s very premature for any of us to conclude anything, but we sure love the Commodore.”
He said regardless of where it is engineered the next generation Commodore must be a vehicle that can be sold globally, a remark that is eerily similar to the policy adopted by Ford boss Alan Mulally.
“You have to think about all of the automotive manufacturers as global companies. What we do in Australia can’t be just only for Australia,” said Lee. “So we will continue our migration to global platforms. And we will optimize our business results in Australia based on the brand equity of Holden the marque of the Commodore.”
Commodore or not, Lee repeated Holden’s commitment to vehicle manufacturing in Australia.
“We want to design, build and sell vehicles in Australia. The Holden brand is fundamental to General Motors and has been in our stable for along time. We are very committed to Australia,” he said.
He described the leaking of internal discussions by APESMA – a union representing engineers – as “regrettable” and gave employees unnecessary angst.
“We’re in the midst of our collective bargaining with several of our unions. The leak was not a good thing. It didn’t help our business whatsoever and it put a lot of uncertainty in the minds of our people.”
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