Holden eco V6s to turn fleet fears

GM HOLDEN admits its revamped V6 engine line-up for the 2010 VE Commodore range won’t be enough for it to claw back overall Australian market leadership from Toyota, but is confident it will put Australia’s top-selling model back into fleet market contention.

Asked at the launch of the new direct-injection 3.0-litre V6 Omega and Berlina and 3.6-litre SV6, Calais and Calais V models in Melbourne last week if the upgraded MY10 large-car range would allow Holden to outsell Toyota, GMH chairman and managing director Alan Batey said: “In volume terms probably not – not in the short-term.” However, Mr Batey is adamant that Fishermens Bend engineers have created the best possible case for the Commodore against both four-cylinder and six-cylinder rivals.

He said the improvements in fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions put the MY10 V6 models at least on a par with foes such as the Toyota Camry in real-world conditions, while offering a palpably roomier package with six-cylinder performance and refinement.

Mr Batey added that, as a result of the Commodore’s efficiency gains, Holden is delivering what Australian fleet and private buyers really want from their family car.

Furthermore, he revealed that Holden looked at offering a four-cylinder Commodore alternative, but decided against it because this was not what customers expected or desired from a large Australian vehicle.

Referring to the failure of the VC-VH Commodore ‘4’ in the early 1980s, and in reference to Ford’s recent announcement that the Falcon will inherit a turbocharged four-cylinder petrol variant in 2011, Mr Batey said that going smaller than a six-cylinder engine in a locally built large car like the VE would be the wrong move.

“This is the answer,” he said. “Some of our competitors have announced a different strategy, but I’m very comfortable with where we are.

“We have considered all of the options. We could have put a four-cylinder into the Commodore, and we absolutely could have done it.

“Personally, I think a V6 that delivers all the things that this delivers is where you want to be.

“No two periods of time are ever the same. We tried this sort of thing before with a four-cylinder Commodore a few years ago. But this ticks all the boxes.

“That, and the other fuel-efficiency initiatives that we are going to roll out, I think that is the winning formula.

“We know customers love our car. We know that there are a lot of fleet owners out there who have employees who’ve moved down from a large car to a medium or small car, and they’d actually rather drive a large car.” Mr Batey admitted that it will take time to convince fleet buyers and user-choosers to switch to a Commodore, but Holden is confident that the VE MY10’s figures speak for themselves.

“I think that for those people who have already moved (from V6 fleet cars like the Commodore), they’ve already made that decision,” he said.

“I think what we’ve got now though is a situation where we can sit down with them and truly explain that what we’ve got is something very compelling and that it does tick all the boxes.

“So by doing that I think you start the dialogue and then you start giving them a car for test-driving purposes, and then you get customer feedback.

“It’s a journey – and not something that we know is just going to automatically switch it on.

“We took a calculated risk – for all the reasons around fuel economy and CO2 and the power and the refinement. It’s just the right thing to do, because we are absolutely committed to large cars, and they make a lot of sense.

“But we still have to take away all of the potential reasons why a customer – including a fleet – may not consider our vehicle. And I think we’ve done that.” The new Holden boss, who took the reins of the Australian General Motors subsidiary just days earlier on September 1 following the return to the US of Mark Reuss, went on to say that reaction from the business market had already been positive.

“I think we are going to get good fleet demand for the vehicle,” he said.

“I’ve had the opportunity to show the vehicle to some fleet owners… and the feedback has been fantastic. I’m very positive across the board.” Asked if the capacity drop to a 3.0-litre V6 might disenfranchise the existing buyer base, Mr Batey is adamant that traditional Commodore strengths like performance have not been compromised.

“Looking at fleets, from a sports perspective, those sort of people will love the fuel economy but of course they will love the power. We’re ticking those boxes as well.

“I couldn’t be happier, actually, from an execution perspective.” Nevertheless, Mr Batey acknowledged that convincing some of the traditional Commodore buyer base to step down into the 3.0-litre V6 would still be a challenge.

“Now we’ve got to get bums on seats for them to see what it’s all about. That’s the job we’ve got to do, and we are telling every dealer in Australia ‘this is huge, and you have to get bums on seats, because when you do … they’ll think wow this is fantastic!’ “I’m not saying we’ll get everyone over the line, but I do think that the data is very compelling.

“It shows that we are better, even against four-cylinder (rivals) that people may have not considered before.

“(Having frugal V6s) does make an Australian-built car very relevant, and that is the job that we’ve got to do. It’s the hard yards, and it’s what we’ve got to do.” Holden’s marketing director Philip Brook added that having more efficient engines would bring longer-term benefits for buyers.

“We think it will have a positive impact on residuals,” he said. “We are now getting ourselves back on a lot of lists that we weren’t on – for most of the government (fleets) we’re now okay for.” Holden has already begun shipping MY10 Commodores to dealers and will herald the new model’s release to the public in late September via a national brand campaign that includes three television commercials.

Its TV, digital, outdoor, radio and print campaign will emphasise the “game-changing” SIDI technology as “the most important change in Commodore’s history”.