Holden Axed
After 69 years of car manufacturing and more than 100 years in the automotive industry, Holden will come to end this year.
In a press release issued on 17 February, General Motors stated that the Holden brand will be retired from the Australian and New Zealand markets by 2021. All of Holden’s Australian design and engineering operations (including the Lang Lang Proving Ground) will close, with the related Maven and Holden Financial Services operations to wind down, too.
“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 (Holden) business, together with the local team,” said GM International Operations Senior Vice President Julian Blissett.
“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.
“This decision is based on global priorities and does not reflect the hard work, talent and professionalism of the Holden team.”
The end of Holden will also mean the eventual closure of Holden’s 200+ national dealer network, although a handful will remain in operation as GM moves to a “specialty vehicles business”, offering imported and converted vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado and Camaro, as well as the upcoming Corvette. Surviving dealerships will be rebranded, most likely as ‘Chevrolet’, although a generic ‘General Motors’ moniker may be applied to allow other GM brands (GMC, Buick, Cadillac) to be sold under the same roof.
GM Holden Interim Chairman and Managing Director Kristian Aquilina, who took over from Dave Buttner in December, acknowledged that the decision to end Holden will be felt deeply across Australia and New Zealand.
“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.
“We understand the impact of this decision on our people, our customers, our dealers and our partners – and will work closely with all stakeholders to deliver a dignified and respectful transition.”
GM’s decision to discontinue the Holden brand entirely comes little more than two months after it was announced the Commodore and Astra would be discontinued and the local lineup would move to utes and SUVs only.
The end of Holden will see approximately 600 current staff lose their jobs, with around 200 remaining to process warranty and servicing requirements, as well as the mandated obligation to provide servicing and stock spare parts for the next 10 years.
RHD Exit
So why end Holden and why end it now? Simply put, the numbers didn’t add up.
GM say they undertook a “detailed analysis of the investment required for Holden to be competitive beyond the current generation of products”. Claiming the economics to support growing the brand and deliver an appropriate return didn’t warrant further investment, GM also cited the “highly fragmented” right-hand drive market as being influential in the decision.
Regardless of whether it’s right-hand drive or left-hand drive, the costs to develop and then produce a vehicle is about the same, but RHD counts for only a small fraction of global automobile sales, despite some high-volume markets like India and Indonesia.
GM have been withdrawing from RHD markets globally over the past few years as they focus their future efforts on North America and China.
After pulling out of the UK (and Europe entirely), South Africa and India in 2017, GM’s Indonesian operations will cease in March. Despite GM still making cars in Thailand, they’ll exit that market by the end of this year, too, with the plant there to be sold to Great Wall Motors.
The cull will leave Japan as the only RHD market GM will retain a presence in after 2020.
Holden History
While the start of Holden as an automotive brand can be traced back to 1948, the origins of the company itself stretch back much further, specifically to 1865 when English immigrant James Holden established a saddlery business in Adelaide. In 1885, the business became Holden & Frost when Henry Frost joined as a junior partner.
By this stage, Holden had added carpentry and ironmongery services to repair and manufacture horse-drawn carriages.
The company built its first automobile body in 1905 (some sources say 1914), with ‘Holden’s Motor Body Builders’ established in 1917 to cater for the lower tariffs that cars imported in chassis form attracted.
Holden boomed in the 1920s, but was hit hard by the Great Depression, leading to General Motors, which already had a presence in Australia, to purchase the firm in 1931, forming General Motors-Holden (GM-H).
Holden’s Motor Body Builders produced bodies for GM exclusively from this period, innovating with all-steel construction and enclosed coupe designs, but all these cars still bore Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac or La Salle badges.
The first Holden-badged car was built in 1948, kicking off an era where Holden, at times, accounted for half of all the new cars sold in Australia.
In 1962, the millionth Holden, an EJ Premier, was built, by which time Holden had also started export operations, including to LHD markets.
The two-millionth Holden, an HK Brougham, was built in 1969, while an HQ Kingswood was the three-millionth Holden, built in 1974. The end of Holden’s traditional large cars meant the four-millionth Holden was a VC Commodore, built in 1980.
When the last VF II Commodore rolled off the line at Elizabeth in October, 2017, a total of 7,687,675 Holden-badged vehicles had been built.
The top seller during Holden’s 69-year production history was the HQ Series, accounting for 485,650 sales, while the best-selling Commodore was the VT Series with 303,895 sales.
