Holden's Chinese Commodore firms

GM Holden has assured its fleet customers it will continue to satisfy their needs after the locally-produced Commodore is killed off in four years. The move, in the shape of an email to key fleet customers, adds weight to a report that Holden’s top-selling model could be replaced by a large front-wheel drive four-cylinder sedan imported from China.

The email was sent 24 hours after Holden announced last week it will cease manufacturing after almost 70 years in 2017. In it GM Holden sales director Peter Keley promised Holden fleet customers “a wide portfolio of imported products post-2017”.

“Holden will continue with its commitment to provide the very best products to meet the needs of the Australian fleet customer through leveraging the resources of General Motors global product portfolio,” said Keley.

“Holden has done that in the past, it does that today, and will continue to do that into the future under the Holden brand and supplied to you through our vast network of experienced and expert Holden Dealers.”

Before Holden announced it will axe Adelaide production of the Cruze and Commodore in 2017, it committed to producing two new vehicles on two global platforms.

Due in 2015, the first would have been a replacement for Cruze small car – that car is now expected to be fully imported from Korea. Barina, Barina Spark, Malibu, Trax and Captiva are currently all Korean sourced.

The second local model was to have been a new-generation Commodore – a name Holden has repeatedly said is too valuable to axe – likely to be based on the same front-drive Epsilon II platform as the Malibu.

Essentially representing an extension of the situation in which the locally designed and engineered Caprice was assembled and sold in China as the Buick Park Avenue, Holden will design both the Australian and Chinese versions of the 2017 Commodore.

motoring.com.au understands local design work is continuing at Holden’s Port Melbourne studio which is set to survive the axing of local production. (Holden has however, confirmed its Lang Lang proving ground, Fishermens Bend engineering centre and Port Melbourne engine factory will also close).

However, according to a News Limited report, the next-generation Commodore will be produced solely in China and exported to Australia, following the end of Holden manufacturing within four years.

The report also claims Holden is now fighting to be able to offer the imported Commodore with the option of a V6 engine.

If the plan comes to fruition, it will be the first Commodore since the early 1980s to be powered by a four-cylinder, and the first top-selling Holden to stray from the rear-drive six-cylinder layout the company was born with in 1948.

There will be no wagon version of the next-gen Commodore, nor a ute. And for the first time, the next-gen Commodore is also likely to more from a three-box sedan in favour of a sleeker, more coupe-like silhouette. In this respect it is following the lead of increasingly popular large European sedans like the BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe and Porsche Panamera.

The newspaper report, was accompanied by a Photoshopped image of an Audi A7 Sportback with a Holden grille. It ited an unnamed Holden insider as saying the new Commodore will be about as long and wide as the latest VF Commodore, but its low roofline will make it look smaller.

Based on the billion-dollar VE Commodore, Holden’s 2007 WM Statesman formed the basis of the born-again Buick Park Avenue in China, where it was assembled by Shanghai GM from completely knocked down (CKD) component kits.

China’s Buick Park Avenue, which replaced the VT-VZ Commodore-based Buick Royaum, was powered by Melbourne-made 2.8 and 3.6-litre V6s. That model was discontinued in 2012 – before the launch of Australia’s VF Commodore and WN Caprice this year -- following slow sales.

While that has left Buick without a large sedan in China, local reports state a replacement for the Park Avenue will be on sale by 2015 – perhaps as the first in a series of new rear-drive models from Buick, GM’s biggest brand in China.

The demise of Holden’s VF Commodore – and the Australian-engineered Zeta platform that underpins it -- in 2017 will also leave North America without Chevrolet’s long-wheelbase Caprice PPV police car and short-wheelbase SS, which also forms the basis of the bow-tie brand’s billion-dollar NASCAR campaign.

GM’s plans to replace those large rear-drive models remain unclear but, as it stands, the only future GM model known to employ the newer rear-drive Alpha platform that underpins Cadillac’s new ATS medium sedan and third-generation CTS large sedan is the Mk6 replacement for Chevy’s Camaro coupe, which currently rides on Holden’s Zeta architecture.

Chevrolet’s Malibu and Impala, as well as the Opel Insignia and Commodore-sized Buick LaCrosse – a volume-selling model for GM in China -- all currently reside on the Eplison II platform.

But their replacements – and Australia’s next Commodore – are expected to be based on a new front-drive platform called E2XX, just as the next Cruze and Captiva will be based on a new common architecture called D2XX.

The all-new 2016 Camaro is a good chance to take up the local fight against Ford’s Mustang, which is due here in 2015, but it could also be the only rear-drive passenger car with more than four-cylinders available from GM in Australia.

Holden coverage on motoring.com.au

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