Holden looks beyond US for VF exports

HOLDEN is set to ramp up exports of its new VF Commodore beyond the already announced North American market, with South Africa likely to see the return of the sedan alongside the ute, and the Middle East the subject of a renewed export drive.

GM Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux said the Adelaide-built VF – a major reworking of the existing VE Commodore – would be sold on four continents, which he named as Australasia, North America, Asia and Africa.

However, the Asian destination is only the Middle East, where Holden has shipped Holden cars badged as Chevrolet Luminas and Caprices for about a decade.

Holden vehicle exports peaked in 2006 at more than 60,000 units, with about half of those going to the Middle East as left-hand-drive Chevrolets.

Exports collapsed under the global financial crisis, which not only severely undermined Middle Eastern export numbers but also killed off the Commodore-based Pontiac G8 sedan in the United States, followed by the similar Chevrolet Omega exported to Brazil.

Holden revived its North American export program with the Chevrolet Caprice PPV (Police Patrol Vehicle) project last year, selling hundreds of vehicles a month to law enforcement agencies in the US and Canada.

Although Holden stopped shipping Commodore sedans to South Africa about two years ago, it has pressed on with small numbers of utes.

Mr Devereux, who managed GM’s Middle Eastern Operations before arriving in Australia three years ago, said Holden’s exports to the Gulf region had fallen to about 6000 units a year, leveling out about that number.

He is tight-lipped about prospective export numbers for the new VF, especially to the US where he is leaving the sales store to his Holden predecessor Mark Reuss, who is now GM North America president.

Mr Reuss will be front and centre at the unveiling of the Australian-built Chevrolet SS Performance in Florida next weekend, ahead of the Daytona 500 when the car will carry the hopes of GM in the NASCAR series.

Asked if Holden would resume exporting the Commodore sedan to South Africa alongside the ute, Mr Devereux said it was too early to discuss export programs.

The new VF is also likely to turn up in a fifth continent – Europe – as the new Vauxhall VXR, built by Holden Special Vehicles for the right-hand-drive UK market.