High hopes for Holden's 'Police Caprice'

Holden expects to export "thousands, not hundreds" of Police Caprices once the first cars start working the beat in North America later this year.

The Police Caprice is a critical roll of the dice for Holden as the Australian car maker tries to fill the void left by the axed Pontiac export program and weak exports to the Middle East since the Global Financial Crisis.

At its peak a couple of years ago, Holden exported more than 26,000 Commodores to North America as a Pontiac G8, and up to 20,000 Caprices to the Middle East badged as Chevrolets. This year, Holden expects to export between just 4000 and 5000 Caprices to the Middle East.

"We are ready to start taking orders for the PPV [Police Caprice] from October 1 and the early feedback has been positive," the boss of Holden, Mike Devereux, told the Carsales Network at the unveiling of the Series II Commodore in Melbourne this week.

"We are ramping up to start taking orders from police fleets from Michigan State through to the LAPD. A lot of police agencies have been through the cars and taken a good look at them and we think we've got the vehicle that best suits their needs in terms of safety, performance and packaging."

Devereux said the market for police vehicles in the United States is worth about 70,000 sales per year -- and Ford and Dodge have dominated it for the past decade.

"We (General Motors) haven't had a true rear-drive alternative, which police prefer from a performance standpoint. But right now our time is right.

"There are some changes in the market. Ford is moving to an all-wheel-drive police vehicle, Dodge has been there for a long time with the Charger. We feel we have the best product for police fleets."

When asked how many Caprices are likely to be exported to North America as police cars, Devereux said: "Initially I think we'll be selling the vehicle in the thousands, absolutely. Thousands, not hundreds. We think this is the best vehicle for the police needs, so absolutely we're aiming for big [export] numbers here."

It is the first time anyone from Holden has put an estimate on export numbers for the Police Caprice.

An insider later told the Carsales Network: "the reality is, we just won't know exact export numbers until it gets over there and on the road".

Devereux insisted the Police Caprice export program was not crucial to the survival of Holden's local manufacturing operations.

"Holden is set up to be a profitable company with a business in Australia and we have to be able do that," he said.

"Exports come and go depending on economic conditions in other places, so to set up your business to depend on [exports] is not a smart thing to do.

"Would I like to sell more cars outside of Australia? Sure, but we're set up to be able to win here. All GM business units are set up to survive on their domestic demand. Exports are a bonus.

"So we're set up to make money in Australia building and selling cars here and importing a few."

One of the challenges for the Police Caprice export program, after the "buy American" campaign that Ford and Dodge fleet sales executives are running, is the currency exchange rate between Australia and the USA.

"When we began exporting Monaro and later Commodore to North America the exchange rate was around 65 Australian cents to the US dollar. Today we're up to 90 cents to the US dollar," said Devereux.

"That's a lot of money. That's thousands of dollars in transfer price differences. That makes it challenging to negotiate the right price that works well for both parties [Holden in Australia and Chevrolet in North America]."

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