Holden kills off Cruze

GM Holden's Elizabeth plant in Adelaide will produce its last Cruze small car at about 8:30am this morning, reducing production at the South Australian factory from about 240 cars a day to 165.

The end of Cruze production will see around 270 Holden employees leave Holden in October and early November -- all on a voluntary basis – which is fewer than the 320 Holden forecasted in July due to ongoing domestic demand for Commodore models.

Holden chief Mark Bernhard paid tribute to the company's employees for launching, designing and building Australia’s last locally-made small car, which will be replaced by the German-made Astra hatch in December (and the Korean-built Cruze sedan, which is expected to be badged as an Astra, early next year), before Commodore production ends in Adelaide late next year, marking the end of Holden manufacturing.

"Those who were involved in the Cruze project have a strong, and deserved, sense of pride at what was achieved in terms of project development, management, engineering, design and, of course, production," he said.

“Holden’s business is changing and we are building a bright future, but it is equally important to recognise and honour our people and our heritage. We’re incredibly proud of our manufacturing history and our legacy; I want to thank every Holden employee, and all those people in the supply chain, for their personal contribution to our industry and our company,” said Bernhard.

The final two Australian-made Cruze SRI Z-Series hatchbacks will be donated to Holden’s long-time charity partner, the Leukaemia Foundation, which will raffle the cars to fundraise for patient transport services and accommodation.

We forecast the end of local Cruze production by the end of this year in February, before Holden confirmed it later that month and then announced the actual date in July, but today the company said Cruze production had been forecast to end in 2016 since 2014, as part of a gradual scaling down of production.

“The passion and dedication of the manufacturing workforce means they continually raise their quality standards and they are determined that the last cars built at Elizabeth will be the best quality ever,” said Holden Executive Director Manufacturing Richard Phillip.

“As with any other model ending production, we hold 10 years of spare parts and there will be no change to warranties or service agreements.”

Like Ford -- which closes its two Australian factories today, affecting about 600 jobs -- Holden has a suite of services to assist its workers transition to new employment, including up to $3000 in approved training per worker as part of its $15 million contribution to the federal government’s Growth Fund for specific support of manufacturing employees.

Holden says that of the 450 or so employees who have left Holden in the last two years, 78 per cent have transitioned successfully to jobs, retirement or study, with 67 per cent going into new jobs.

Today Holden said it remains committed to Commodore production until late 2017, after which an Opel Insignia-based replacement will be imported from Germany.

Holden insists that as a full-line importer, it is committed to refreshing or replacing every model in its range by the end of 2020, and will "retain a significant presence in Australia for the long-term, including its sales and marketing operations, spare parts organization, world-class design studios and an ongoing engineering department".

However, Ford will become the largest single automotive employer by retaining about 1200 design and engineering staff as part of its Asia Pacific Product Development operations across three sites in Victoria.

Holden has produced 126,255 Cruze sedan and Australian-designed hatch models since early 2011, with an annual peak of about 33,000, but the model was never a major player in Australia's dominant small-car segment, in which its sales have slipped 22 per cent to just 9257 so far this year – less than the Toyota Corolla, Hyundai i30, Mazda3 and Kia Cerato.

"Holden couldn’t have built Cruze without the help of the federal and South Australian governments," said GMH today.

"Combined with Holden’s own considerable investment, government investment allowed new, flexible vehicle architecture to be introduced to the Elizabeth plant. Cruze was produced using more environmentally-friendly technologies and practices than any other time in Holden’s history."