Holden to develop EVs and autonomous cars

Holden has finally begun its comeback attack with a renewed commitment from General Motors that includes $28 million in fresh spending and 150 new hirings.

As its showroom results hover at historical lows, Holden has won a lifeline from Detroit that takes its technical workforce to "over 500 people" and lifts its annual spending on research and development to $120 million.

The news follows the axing of about 60 Holden sales staff at its Port Melbourne HQ in July, and a sales slump of more than 50 per cent so far this year, thanks mainly to the halving of Commodore sales.

Holden is also preparing a fresh product plan to ensure it is not orphaned by the PSA Peugeot Citroen takeover of Opel, the supplier of the imported ZB Commodore.

“We need to support this brand in a huge way and know that the commitment is long-term,” said Mark Reuss, the former CEO of Holden who is now the global head of product development at GM.

“I think there is a huge opportunity. We need to make people understand what Holden is going to be, once again, and provide that vision. It starts with the product.

“This is part of who we are. And always has been. Either we’re in the game or we’re not.”

Reuss flew from Detroit with GM’s head of global design, expatriate Australian Mike Simcoe, to announce the new deal to the media today (Tuesday) after a briefing to 600 Holden sales, marketing, design, engineering and vehicle development employees on Monday.

He said Australia will play a key role in development of GM autonomous and electric vehicles, linked to similar research bases in the USA, China and Korea.

The 150 new recruits to Holden Engineering -- a mixture of both experienced and graduate engineers -- will be fully integrated into global GM teams to develop future mobility technologies.

“GM is determined to be the first company to bring safe, autonomous vehicles to market -- not within years, but in quarters," said Reuss.

"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.”

Although Holden stopped producing vehicles last year, it retained a technical workforce of about 350 staff including a design team, global powertrain calibration team and local chassis tuning team.

GM recently invested $60 million in a new emissions laboratory and track work at its proving ground at Lang Lang, Victoria.

There was no commitment on timing for the new investment in its Australian division today, but Reuss renewed the pledge by General Motors to lead the world into full-scale autonomous vehicles in 2019.

The announcement of the new R&D package comes just a fortnight after Holden hired former Toyota Australia boss, Dave Buttner, to lead the company in a move that Reuss believes will be key to a showroom fightback.

“This is not an easy place to do business, but it’s a worthwhile place to do business,” he said. “There are a lot of things we can do that will be pretty exciting.

“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.”

Reuss ruled out any name change for Holden while highlighting 70 years of GM engineering work Down Under, as Buttner dodged questions about a possible introduction of Cadillac or right-hand drive performance cars from America.

“We have to look at every opportunity. I’m not taking anything off the table,” he said.

Under its previous five-year product plan announced in 2015, before it ceased manufacturing in October 2017, Holden said it would launch 24 new or upgraded models by the end of 2020.

Holden’s next new model will be the Acadia seven-seat SUV, which is due on sale late this year.