Holden Acadia sums add up

Holden's newly-announced Acadia SUV will be an important component in the company's renewed range when it arrives here in 2018.

The Acadia will be Holden's answer to Toyota's Kluger when it goes on sale. It's longer than the Colorado-based Trailblazer and is expected to take the battle up to the Kluger in ways the seven-seat Captiva never could.

But as vital as the Acadia will be for Holden, its introduction to the Australian market has only come about due to the announced closure of Holden's local manufacturing operations, according to Holden's Director of Communications, Sean Poppitt.

"I spent two years at the factory and loved every minute and became quite emotionally involved, so I don't say this flippantly, but the shackles are off a little bit once we get through [the plant closure]," he told motoring.com.au yesterday.

"All of that huge capital expenditure that GM used to have to make to keep the plant running and upgrade tooling... is now freed up to get us into product programs.

"We don't need the massive volume that we needed to justify the investment, because there's less capital expenditure pressure on the business."

That's well and good, but how has that had any impact on the feasibility of Acadia for Australia?

"There's no other right-hand drive market that's getting that car," the Holden exec explained. "That is purely for Australia, and we're able to make that work because of the financials of not having manufacturing.

"So, from a pure customer point of view, they're going to have the best Holden line-up we've ever had, because we're not geared towards protecting the plant."

In the not-too-distant past, a former Holden MD went on record declaring that Holden could overtake Toyota's sales by 2020. More recently, current MD Mark Bernhard has steered clear of public pronouncements along those lines, but he has said that Holden would like to retake the top spot in the market at some indeterminate point in the future.

New models like the Acadia bring that prospect a little closer to reality. Like every other brand in the market, however, Holden still won't have the reach to rein in Toyota's dominant market penetration.

As yet, there's no likelihood Holden will have rivals for the three Prius variants or the 86 sports car, let alone the HiAce van or the highly profitable off-road wagons, the LandCruiser and Prado.

Holden does have the Barina Spark and the Cascada at least. And with Acadia joining the line-up the company's product range is shaping up to be a balanced mix of sales volumes and profitability.