A momentous goodbye.
General Motors (GM) has today announced it will axe Holden Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2020, leaving the right-hand-drive market.
First revealed by CarAdvice, local design and engineering teams, Holden Financial Services and ride-sharing platform Maven will cease by 2021.
The firm says customer support will continue, honouring all existing warranties and guarantees, free scheduled servicing offers, ongoing call centre support, and recalls or safety-related issues (if any). Importantly, servicing and spare parts is said to remain for at least 10 years in both countries.
Communication is ongoing with its 204 dealer partners across the country on when to cease sales and transitioning dealerships — who opt in — to authorised service outlets for existing Holden owners.
GM says the outlay of deliberately producing cars in right-hand-drive since it is economically unsustainable, signalled by the recent exit of countries like Japan, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
The other right-hand-drive market, Thailand, will cease selling Chevrolet vehicles and has sold its manufacturing plant — which makes the Holden Colorado — to Great Wall Motors.
The American parent company will remain in Australia and New Zealand, though, focussing on specialty vehicles — much like Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) currently importing and converting cars such as the performance Chevrolet Camaro and Silverado pick-up truck.
Holden Interim Chairman and Managing Director, Kristian Aquilina, laments the Lion brand. “Holden will always have a special place in the development of our countries. As Australia and New Zealand grew, Holden was a part of the engine room fuelling that development,” Mr Aquilina says.
“Today’s announcement will be felt deeply by the many people who love Holdens, drive Holdens and feel connected to our company which has been with us for 160 years and is almost ubiquitous in our lives. Unfortunately, all the hard work and talent of the Holden family, the support of our parent company GM and the passion of our loyal supporters have not been enough to overcome our challenges,” he says.
This is reaffirmed by GM International Operations Senior Vice President Julian Blissett. “Over recent years, as the industry underwent significant change globally and locally, we implemented a number of alternative strategies to try to sustain and improve the business, together with the local team,” Mr Blissett says.
“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,” he concedes.
This announcement comes just days after Holden confirmed its 2020 Astra facelift will lob in showrooms. Stock is coming to some dealers; it will most likely be remaining inventory already made by the factory in Poland before this decision.
In December 2019, the company announced it will ditch the Astra and iconic Commodore nameplates in the same time — late 2020. Now, it is now the entire company. With this, Holden aspired for a complete SUV line-up comprising only of the Trax, Equinox and Arcadia, with the Colorado ute and HSV vehicles.
At that time, it was anticipated that the just-facelifted Equinox will also arrive with an updated Colorado this year. Of course, these vehicles will not make it Down Under. However, the Corvette C8 will still arrive in Australia soon under a new brand, General Motors Special Vehicles (GMSV).
Holden ceased local manufacturing in October 2017, and posted record low sales throughout 2019 and into this year. Previous Chairman and Managing Director, Dave Buttner, suddenly left his position in December with only 18 months on the job, citing personal reasons to retire.
Existing owners can find out more information about aftersales support on Holden’s website.
The Connected by Henry Man 