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Bruce Newton14 Jan 2014
NEWS

No Chev threat to Holden

Closure of local manufacturing does not also mean the end of the local name says Batey

There is no prospect of the Holden name being replaced by the Chevrolet badge in Australia.

That is the declaration of one of the most senior executives within General Motors globally, Alan Batey, who is also former managing director of Holden.

Mr Batey who has recently been promoted from running Chevrolet globally to heading GM's North American operation, also told motoring.com.au he was confident Holden sales levels would not be damaged significantly by last December's decision to shut manufacturing and cease engineering operations in Australia in 2017.

There have been rumours and media speculation of a push with General Motors' global headquarters in Detroit to go with Chevrolet in Australia because it is GM's global mainstream brand and occupies a very similar marketing and price space to Holden.

The two brands already share much of their lineups, including the Holden Commodore VF, which is sold in North America as the Chevrolet SS.

But while Mr Batey said he was aware of the rumours he said they had no foundation.

"Holden will remain a very important brand in our portfolio," he said.

"If you were starting out with a clean sheet of paper it might be different, but you are not you starting out with a brand that is Australia's own," said the Briton, who ran Holden from 2010 to 2012 and was its sales and marketing director before that.

"I don't think it would make sense to put bowties on the front of Holdens down there. I don’t think it would make commercial sense at all."

Batey predicted Holden sales, which hit their lowest level since 2013 – albeit with a strong bounce in the second half of the year – would not be severely damaged by the closure and the end of Commodore.

"I believe we can win in Australia," he said. "At the end of the day we have seen other brands that have moved out of manufacturing in Australia and we have seen that their presence has remained strong and we are going to do the same."

Batey admitted his personal sadness at the Holden closure announcement, which means the end of production of the Commodore and Cruze and the transition to full importer status.

"From a personal perspective, whenever you close a chapter like local manufacturing it's a tough moment.

"I know everybody, love the brand, had a wonderful time for four years working at Holden and so it was a tough moment. I am disappointed and sad but at the same time the brand stands tall.

"I think we are going to continue to have a great presence there in the market. We are keeping our capability from a design perspective down there under Mike Simcoe's leadership. There is a lot of talent we want to leverage."

Batey said the sales performance of the Chev SS was up to the limited sales expectations, which he put it at just 3000 per annum.

"Here in the USA we have CAFÉ (corporate average fuel emissions) requirements we have to hit so this is going to be a niche for us. We are not going to rapidly grow it. But everyone is every excited about it," he said.

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