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Australian Automaker Holden Phased Out, GMSV Will Replace It

After announcing an "exclusive SUV and ute lineup" in December 2019, Holden follows up with a less optimistic announcement in February 2020. As the headline implies, the General Motors brand will stop selling, designing, and engineering automobiles in Australia and New Zealand.
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The troubles for Holden started before Australian manufacturing came to a grinding halt in 2017. The commercial viability of the brand took a turn for the worst in September 2019 by posting the lowest sales volume since 1948 (2,863 vehicles). General Motors, therefore, was rather livid.

“After comprehensive assessment, we regret that we could not prioritize the investment required for Holden to be successful for the long term in Australia and New Zealand, over all other considerations we have globally,” said Julian Blissett, the senior vice president of International Operations at General Motors. “This decision is based on global priorities and does not reflect the hard work, talent, and professionalism of the Holden team.

The writing was on the wall when the Australian division accepted to morph into an importer rather than a manufacturer. Customer satisfaction with the dealerships isn’t anything to write home about either, but more importantly, General Motors ignored these hardships just like it did with Opel and Vauxhall in Europe. Regarding the latter, both brands turned back to profitability thanks to the ownership and management of French automaker Groupe PSA.

Holden will continue to honor warranties and servicing for at least 10 years, but the brand will be discontinued by the end of 2020. General Motors Specialty Vehicles will be the entity that will carry the torch forward, importing the likes of the C8 Corvette in right-hand drive.

Impacted employees have been promised severance packages and support for finding new jobs. The dealerships, on the other hand, will have to settle for arrangements such as continuing to operate as authorized service outlets. In other words, the domino effect is obvious in this case.

Some would argue that Holden died when the VF Commodore stopped production in October 2017. The truth is, General Motors is too inwardly focused on North America to do well anywhere else. The only exception is the People’s Republic of China, a market where General Motors sold 3.09 million vehicles last year as opposed to 2.88 million vehicles in the U.S. of A.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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