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NEWS
Sportwagon could follow Commodore SS to US
No go for Ute, but not too late for Holden's Sportwagon to be exported to North AmericaGM Holden’s Commodore Sportwagon could be the next Australian-made vehicle to be exported to the US.
Speaking at the reveal of the Chevrolet SS at Daytona, where the VF Commodore-based sports sedan will make its NASCAR debut next weekend, GM North America President and former Holden boss Mark Reuss ruled out Ute exports to the US but indicated the Commodore wagon was still a chance to hit US Chevrolet showrooms.
“It’s a little bit late for Ute,” he said. “Some people think it’d be a really cool thing to do, but not at a high price. We could never sell it at the price it would need to be.”
GM eliminated well-advanced plans to sell the outgoing VE Commodore-based ute and wagon as Pontiacs in the US following the axing of the Pontiac brand as part of its bankruptcy restructure in 2009.
Unlike the Ute, which would have to be priced below the circa-$US45,000 Chevy SS, Mr Reuss said the Sportwagon could be positioned above the premium-priced sedan, making its business case easier to prove in the face of the strong Australian currency.
“I’d love to have it (the Ute) here. We’d have it here in a second – we almost did. (But) The wagon we could charge more for, so it’s not too late for the wagon.”
Mr Reuss said the Chevy SS business plan was officially based on “a very conservative” 5000 annual sales, but has also been reported as forecasting 15,000 or more yearly sales through about 3000 Chevrolet dealers in North America.
If the Sportwagon was sold in the US it would not be before next year, given the Chevy SS won’t be officially released there until at least October, following the VF Commodore’s Australian launch in May.
If shipped Stateside, the Commodore ute would join not only the sedan but the long-wheelbase WM Caprice limousine-based Police Patrol Vehicle, about 6000 of which have been exported to the US from Adelaide since last year.
Mr Reuss said the short- and long-wheelbase export strategy was “a good fit for our portfolio”, in part because the police-only Caprice PPV is not included in GM’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) figure in the US. “The 2016 CAFE legislation prevents us building the car here because of its CO2 footprint,” he said. “That’s why we did it.
While the WN Caprice will receive the same cosmetic and technology upgrades as the short-wheelbase VF, this year’s facelifted Commodore is slated for launch on four continents – Australasia, North America, Asia (Middle East) and (South) Africa – and could surpass its VT and VE predecessors in terms of its overseas popularity.
Holden exported about 41,000 VE Commodores to the US as Pontiacs between late 2007 and early 2009, following the shipment of around 32,000 VT Commodore-based Monaro coupes there in 2004 and 2005, outstripping local sales of both models at the time.
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Written byMarton Pettendy
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