Holden open to alternatives

HOLDEN will investigate every option it has to ensure its new VE Commodore and WM long-wheelbase cars remain viable in the Australian market for at least the next 15 years.

With increasing pressure on the large-car segment from spiralling fuel prices, Holden is prepared to search for any way it can to make sure its vehicles are "less sensitive" to fuel costs to recover the $1 billion investment it has made into the Commodore’s basic architecture.

The first step is likely to be the introduction of lightweight components and panels to reduce vehicle mass and improve fuel economy, but Holden’s director of engineering Tony Hyde has not discounted diesel powerplants, and a greater push towards alternative fuels such as LPG and ethanol and even hybrid technology in the future.

"I am open to all offers at the moment," Mr Hyde said.

"We will look at diesel when we can get our hands on one. We’ve got LPG with a dual fuel system coming in the next couple of months. And I am certainly interested in hybrid technology.

"Our prime objective is to ensure we can keep the large-car market alive by making the vehicle less sensitive to fuel costs and fuel availability." With a lot of criticism generated by the increased weight of the VE Commodore over its predecessor, primarily due to the massive gains in structural integrity to meet current and future crash safety regulations, Mr Hyde has promised to investigate ways of countering the weight gain, particularly at the top end of the Commodore clan for vehicles such as the SS-V, Calais and Statesman.

"Weight is pretty easy to put in, that’s for sure," he admitted.

"It’s going to be a bit of a stretch for us to get it out, but the first thing we can look at is materials.

"Aluminium is pretty expensive, so it becomes a proposition of value – particularly in the base cars – but certainly on the high-end models where the mass is getting up there aluminium is certainly an option we have to look at.

"That’s the best opportunity we have in the short-term. We can talk about LPG, we can talk about diesels and hybrids and the like, but I don’t have any of them in my back pocket at the moment.

"What I do have is a group of very good body engineers and materials people that could go off and do stuff like that in the near future." Mr Hyde admitted that his team had already investigated aluminium panels such as bonnets and bootlids for the VE, but the production costs were prohibitive at that point in time.

He said the massive computing power at Holden’s engineering facility meant the initial testing could be researched in the virtual world, therefore eliminating the huge costs in physical prototypes.

And that could allow him to direct his team to investigate ways of implementing aluminium technology more efficiently within the next few years, which could potentially stretch to suspension components and subframes to amortise the cost.

While diesel is likely to be the next alternative fuel option – and derived from technology out of Opel in Europe – Holden will rely on its parent company in the USA to develop a hybrid system that can be adopted into local production within the next decade.

"The (General Motors) corporation had the view that the real future lay in the development of fuel cells, and that hybrids – if you wanted to do it – were only a step on the way," Mr Hyde said.

"I think that what has happened is that maybe the fuel cell has proven to be a bit tougher than anyone thought and is now a bit further out there. If the gap is a long way out there…it may have caught a few manufacturers on the back foot. But considering GM has a lot of technology and is flexible, I don’t think it will take long for them to catch up.

"Our technology will come from the corporation. How we implement that into the local industry – whether we import it or make it ourselves – I don’t know yet. But certainly the local engineers will do all of the integration work: fine-tuning the calibration and packaging the system for our products.

"It’s a matter of when, not if." Ethanol could be the key
THE local car industry may have to make the next move in the ethanol tug-of-war to save its long-term future, according to Holden’s director of engineering, Tony Hyde.

Increasing the availability and the ratio of ethanol-blended fuels could make Australia more self-sufficient and less reliant on global oil prices, therefore protecting the traditional Australian large-car segment well into the future.

"Ethanol? We can do it quite easily, but it is a matter of what the Government wants to do and what the producers want to do," Mr Hyde said.

"It is an interesting argument. We have progressed from no ethanol to 10 per cent, so you can say that is the first step. I am not sure who takes the second step – is it the auto manufacturers, or the Government? "I think the ball might actually be in our court and maybe we are the ones that can have any influence.

"It is a potential alternative in a way, but I am sure it will be very hard to expect politicians to understand the technology without us helping them and giving them advice.

"Australia is very well set up to be a major producer of ethanol, as it doesn’t just come from sugar cane but can be derived from crops such as wheat and corn.

"We should look at ways of getting the country back to being self-sufficient, and if ethanol can help – across a number of industries, including the automotive sector – then I think that is really good." Holden already produces Commodore-based models for export to Brazil that are capable of running on 24 per cent ethanol and GM in America has a number of vehicles that can handle E85.

Mr Hyde said the technology was relatively simple to implement into local product, but wider availability of higher-blended ethanol fuels required infrastructure and commitment from the primary producers, fuel suppliers and Government for it to become a reality.