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Marton Pettendy9 Oct 2015
NEWS

Ex-Holden engineers working on Apple iCar

Australian auto technicians now plying their trade at Apple, Tesla and Ford as Holden winds down its engineering workforce

Apple's top-secret 'iCar' project is benefitting from the expertise of ex-Holden engineers following the downsizing of General Motors' Australian product development capabilities.

Holden has confirmed to motoring.com.au that about five of its former engineers are now working for Apple in the US, presumably on the tech giant's covert vehicle development program, Project Titan.

Apple has never publicly admitted it is working on a plan to build and sell vehicles, but in August Britain's Guardian newspaper uncovered correspondence proving that the Silicon Valley-based company is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test vehicles, confirming the mould-breaking project is much closer to reality than its conventional car-making rivals expected.

Unlike Google's self-driving car, little is known about the Apple car, which is also expected to be autonomous and could be produced by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria.

Holden chief engineer Andrew Holmes told motoring.com.au that a number of former members of his department were also now working for Tesla in North America and Ford's Melbourne-based Asia Pacific product development operation, with many others now based at major automotive component suppliers in Australia.

"A handful of our guys are now at Apple – I'd say about five of them – and others have gone to Tesla and local Tier 1 suppliers. The rest have gone to Ford," said Holmes.

Holden's executive director of engineering Brett Vivian confirmed the company has halved its design and engineering workforce in the past 12 months in the lead-up to the end of its Australian manufacturing operations in 2017.

"We're probably half as big as we were a year ago," he said. "We were at 650 this time last year and now it's fewer than 300."

Of that number, only about 100 engineers will remain at Holden, following the backflip on GM's decision to dismantle almost its entire Australian engineering capability.

Up to 400 Holden engineers faced the axe as early as October 2014 as local vehicle development programs ground to a halt at Holden.

But as we reported exclusively in August, a meeting involving senior GM executives from the US earlier that month decided to cease retrenchment and retain a "significant amount of resource" focussing on Holden's local drivetrain calibration operation.

Holden has since confirmed the reprieve and the creation of a new Advanced Vehicle Development team that will be tasked with supporting the GM Australia Design Centre also located in Port Melbourne.

The decision keeps an extra 100 engineering jobs at Holden and means around 300 engineering and design staff will stay beyond the shutdown of Holden's Elizabeth plant in Adelaide and production of the last locally-developed Commodore in about two years.

It means Holden will retain its powertrain engineering capability alongside its chassis development and vehicle design departments, as well as the Lang Lang proving ground GM had originally decided to sell-off. Holden's powertrain outfit will relocate to Lang Lang.

But unlike Ford – which by the end of 2017 expects to increase from 1200 to 1500 the number of designers and engineers at its Asia Pacific regional facilities in Melbourne, Geelong and the You Yangs proving ground – Holden won't retain the ability to design and engineer vehicles from scratch.

Ford expects to be Australia's biggest automotive employer when Holden and Toyota cease local production in 2017, and this week said it has helped 63 suppliers stay in business after it closes its factory doors in October next year, including 17 suppliers who have earned new business with the company's regional and global operations.

Holden sales chief Peter Keley said Holden's supplier base remains steady "almost without exception", despite the closure of some component makers.

"Some [suppliers] have gone out of business, so we've had to be quick on our feet to ensure ongoing production, but our sales forecasting has been spot on," he said.

GM says its engineering backflip is an isolated decision, not a change of mind on Holden's vehicle development future.

Speaking at last month's Frankfurt motor show, GM CEO Mary Barra was clear that the reversal on the powertrain group would not lead to Holden becoming a similarly-sized and important design and engineering centre.

"It's a moment in time and a good decision that makes good business sense but I wouldn't read more into it," she said.

"When you look at the resources we have in Australia associated with Holden there is very capable design and technical talent and we are leveraging where it makes sense for them as part of the global team."

Holden has one of the most qualified design and engineering teams in the GM world, with high-tech facilities and the latest powertrain calibration, ride/handling development and vehicle design technologies available.

Key contributing factors in the reduction of Holden's engineering wind-down include a significant overhaul of GM's engine and transmission suite via the introduction of mild and full hybrid and other technologies in the next five years, and the falling value of the Australian dollar, which has made local resources significantly cheaper than when the decision was made to axe Australian manufacturing in late 2013.

It's understood Holden's powertrain calibration and ride/handling work – the next beneficiary of which will be the new-generation Spark due on sale in January – will benefit not only vehicles sold in Australia but other markets on a contract basis.

Meantime, Holden has begun selling off parts of what is now prime residential real estate at its Fisherman's Bend plant near Port Melbourne, which has been its spiritual home since 1936.

While Holden's HQ has been situated in a leased building on the other side of Salmon St for about a decade, the 38-hectare industrial site – which is reportedly worth more than $200 million – contains  16 hectares of factory floor, numerous open-air car parks and, since 1964, its current design studio.

Holden design director Richard Ferlazzo said he is "lobbying very hard" to open a new studio for the company's ongoing design work.

Apple iCar concept image courtesy of Italian industrial designer Franco Grassi

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