HSV to announce GMSV plans next month

We’re four to six weeks from knowing more about how GM Specialty Vehicles will replace Holden as General Motors’ brand in Australia.

Revealed by GM when it announced the axing of Holden in February, GMSV is expected to be a joint-venture with the Walkinshaw Group which has been its long-term performance vehicle partner in Australia.

The Walkinshaw Group already converts the Chevrolet Camaro coupe and Silverado pick-up to right-hand drive and markets it through the HSV – Holden Special Vehicles – brand.

That process would likely expand under the GMSV Model. The Chevrolet Suburban SUV is basically confirmed and the mid-engined C8 Corvette supercar is almost certain to be part of the line-up.

Whether it is converted to RHD ex-factory or by Walkinshaw at its Clayton plant is yet to be confirmed.

On the other side of the ledger, the HSV SportsCat is doomed because the Colorado donor vehicle it is based on will no longer be built in right-hand drive following the sale of GM’s Thai factory to Great Wall Motors.

“It will eventually roll away because we don’t have a core vehicle,” said Walkinshaw Group boss Tim Jackson. “We’ll understand timing a bit more in the next three or four weeks.”

The future of the Camaro is also up for debate. HSV has elected not to convert any model year 2020 Camaro 2SS V8 coupes to right-hand drive, sticking only with the supercharged ZL1.

“It [Camaro] forms part of the discussion with GM about model year 2021,” Jackson said.

Jackson made the timing forecast for clarity on GMSV at the launch of the new-generation Silverado 1500 in Melbourne this morning.

“We are working with them [GM] on what the new world might look like,” said Jackson. “We don’t have any specific news on that today.

“I think we will be able to share more in the next four to six weeks, something like that.”

Jackson refused to go into detail about the negotiations with GM, but did strike an optimistic tone about the potential outcome.

“We are making good progress on those discussions,” he said. “A lot of those conversations are confidential so I won’t be sharing them.

Jackson also refused to explain the future of the HSV brand name, which must be debatable given Holden is disappearing.

“You can make that assumption if you want, I wouldn’t be confirming or denying it,” he said.

He was similarly close-mouthed about the future of HSV’s existing 65 dealers, or whether GMSV is simply a working name or will become a public-facing marketing brand.