Holden’s thousands of employees and Australian new car buyers are the winners in a multi-billion dollar future announced yesterday at the company’s Elizabeth, South Australian manufacturing facility.
Supported by $275 million in funding from Federal and State Governments, Holden announced plans to build two all-new cars in the second half of this decade (likely to be the all-new Commodore and Cruze ranges).
Holden will invest more than $1 billion for the 10-year vehicle and manufacturing program. Flow-on benefits for suppliers and the broader community will total more than $4 billion.
“The investment will help Australia retain its capability to design, engineer and build cars with two all-new vehicles going into production at Elizabeth, South Australia in the second half of this decade. The two new Australian-made cars will be world class. They will be underpinned by global architectures from within General Motors and bring new fuel-saving, connectivity and safety technologies to Holden’s portfolio,” revealed Holden chief Mike Devereux.
Coming on top of funding provided to Ford and Toyota commitments now well beyond 2016, the future for Australian vehicle manufacturing – and the hundreds of thousands of associated jobs – is now secure. Consumers can now look forward to a raft of exciting new models bristling with world-class technology.
And it should be remembered that per capita, financial support of our vehicle manufacturing industry is just a small fraction of that paid by taxpayers in Germany and North America.
