Australia key to autonomous cars, says GM

Holden in Australia could hold the key to a fatality-free future on the world’s roads.

With 150 new engineers headed to Fishermens Bend and Lang Lang, the drive is on to give Holden a leadership position in the advanced engineering work on autonomous and electric cars at General Motors.

The company has also hit the re-set button on its sales work after two of the worst months in the company’s long and shining history, as it regroups under a new CEO from outside the GM world with the objective to restore the faith and support that underpinned the People Trust Holden slogan that worked for decades.

GM’s global product boss Mark Reuss turned the key on the technology drive in Melbourne yesterday and believes Australia, and Australians, can play a vital role.

“The depth of engineering talent and experience here is extraordinary,” said Reuss.

Reuss is a former president of Holden, who was called back to Detroit at the height of GM’s 2008 bankruptcy crisis and is now number two in the global pecking order behind CEO Mary Barra.

He ended a 10-year absence as he stood in the spotlight to show head-office support for Holden, the company’s new ex-Toyota CEO Dave Buttner, the company’s cars and a fresh approach to everything Holden.

His touring party included chief designer Mike Simcoe, an Australian who was recruited from Fishermens Bend to take control of GM’s global design portfolio.

“Support for Mark, reinforcing GM’s commitment to design in Australia,” Simcoe said of his reason for the visit. But he also checked on progress at Fishermens Bend on the latest global design work at GM Design Australia.

“And I was in the studios,” he added.

The Reuss visit is unprecedented in the recent history of Holden, and included a trip to the Lang Lang proving ground to highlight recent updating work, a stronger emphasis on global emissions work and the latest product line-up.

“This is a great car,” said Reuss as he took to the wheel of an imported Holden ZB Commodore on the ride-and-handling course at the proving ground.

But it was the engineering message that was most important for Reuss in his global role.

“GM is determined to be the first company to bring safe, autonomous vehicles to market – not within years, but in quarters,” he says.

“Make no mistake, we’re moving to a driverless future — a future of safer roads and zero crashes. At the same time, GM is well on its way to bringing at least 20 new all-electric models to market by 2023.

“The world-class vehicle engineering capability we have at Holden in Australia will play a significant role in GM delivering on its commitment to create a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”

Reuss also knows that the technological challenge will be tasty bait for students looking at their career choices.

“The cutting-edge nature of the work will be a big attraction to applicants. If you want to work on something new, this is the place to do it,” he says.

The announcement by Reuss was welcomed by Buttner.

“Every single thing we do is one more step to ensure the brand reemerges. This sort of announcement is really exciting,” he said.

The announcement of an additional 150 technical staff brings the number of Holden designers, engineers and vehicle development people to more than 500, and the associated $28 million injection brings Holden’s annual research and development spend to $120m.

That’s nonetheless well short of the 900-odd R&D staff employed to develop the Zeta platform-based VE and billion-dollar VF Commodores, plus the previous Chevrolet Camaro, before the GFC in 2008.

It’s also well down on the 1500 R&D staff employed at Ford’s Asia Pacific Product Development facilities in Broadmeadows and Geelong, where Ford invests about $500m annually.

Holden is coming to the close of its five-year product onslaught, with the Acadia seven-seater SUV landing before the end of the year as the 18th of 24 new or upgraded models promised between 2015 and 2020.

That number doesn’t include the HSV-converted Chevrolet Camaro coupe and Silverado pick-up to be available via selected Holden dealers.

Nor is it likely to include the next-generation Chevrolet C8 Corvette supercar, which along with the next Camaro is expected to be a global model for the first time, or any Cadillac models that could eventually be sold here.

Reuss wouldn’t be drawn on specifics, but he highlighted the potential for electric and hybrid cars from Detroit and hinted at the revival of the Cadillac brand in Australia, where plans to revive the GM luxury brand were killed off by the GM bankruptcy following the 2008 GFC.

Reuss, who is the global boss of Cadillac, said a right-hand drive factory Camaro in the next generation of the American muscle car was possible.

“That will depend on how the current model goes in this market,” he said.

Reuss said he is not concerned about the PSA Peugeot Citroen take-over of Opel, which has been a significant product source for Holden since the original VB Commodore in 1978.

“I think we have an incredible opportunity to do what the Australian market wants,” he said.

“I need some help with some of the right-hand drive commitment stuff. The Equinox wasn’t designed for anywhere else in right-hand drive except Holden.

“We’re making those commitments right now. We will support and we already are supporting. There are a lot of things we can do that will be pretty exciting.

“We have to understand what the customer wants. And we’ll do it,” he said.

With the big announcement at Fishermens Bend complete, Reuss and his group headed to Lang Lang with a group of media and members of Holden’s national dealer council.

The visit was to highlight the emissions and track upgrades, as well as providing the chance to drive the current Holden heroes and an — under embargo — preview of the Acadia.

“It’s sacred. We’ve seen it all here,” Reuss said of Lang Lang, before confirming he was the one who saved the 70-year-old proving ground from a planned sale during the GM bankruptcy.

“Yes, that was me. It was never going to happen,” he smiles.

Drive time with the ZB Commodore, Colorado, Trailblazer, Equinox and Acadia confirms the class of the cars, and the only failing in Holden’s ZB plan was using the Commodore name -- something confirmed by many of the GM group, but off the record.

So the biggest challenge for GM is rebuilding trust in Holden, getting its cars onto shopping lists, proving its commitment to the Red Lion badge and demonstrating it has a future inside the GM world.

“We’re very proud of the Holden name,” said Reuss.

“If you lay out the plan and say what you need to do, everybody gets it done. And they can do it again. I’m totally confident about that.

“They are putting together what Holden is going to be and it’s different from what we were. We’ll get that figured out very shortly. It’s actually very invigorating.”