Belgian business man taking next step to buy Holden plant and Build Commodore

[Eaturbo]

Belgian business man Guido Dumarey is taking things to the next level to investigate buying the Holden plant and continue building cars using the Zeta platform. http://www.carsales.com.au/editorial...izabeth-100647

This would be the best news since Henry Ford starting building cars here. It would keep the manufacturing business open in Australia and be great for local jobs. There's a long way to go but it's a start. Imagine the potential of it. We all know that once the doors close for good that there's no way that we will ever see a auto factory in Australia again. Imagine the possibilities with a new owner and the other Australian business that supply parts like carbon fibre wheels, supercharger and the like.

[Windsor220]

So what happens to Holden in this scenario? Will it use the Holden name or something else?

[Bossxr8]

Repost. And GM will never allow someone to come in and use one of their platforms. It's really a non story.

[Eaturbo]

It's an update on this business mans plans and a very important one for Australia. I don't think there's anyway It will wear a Holden badge of any sort.

[99AUXR]

GM will not sell their platform to a competitor.

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by 99AUXR

GM will not sell their platform to a competitor.

Isn't it an old platform now?

[Eaturbo]

Originally Posted by 99AUXR

GM will not sell their platform to a competitor.

I wouldn't be too sure, they gave there intellectual property for there gearboxes to him and so too are ZF as well to build gearboxes for BMW. Money from the government and how much he's prepared to pay GM will be the deciding factor in if it happens or not.

[Trump]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Isn't it an old platform now?

That it is, but the intellectual property associated with Zeta is something that is spread across multiple current platforms. As such, there is a snowballs chance in hell this move will be anything more than a pipe dream.

[Eaturbo]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Isn't it an old platform now?

Yes and no, it's still a very competent suspension layout with way fewer problems than the Falcon rear suspension has. For it to be able to handle the upcoming GTS R means it's a very capable platform. Remember it's only the floor pan arrangement and still leaves the design above free.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Repost. And GM will never allow someone to come in and use one of their platforms. It's really a non story.

They sold Saab. The 9 3 will be the base for 150,000 EVs. They also sold the 93 platform to be used by Romania for a new venture to build a state car.

GM also sold their truck business to Navistar a while back.

The difference is the Commodore will be competing against this so could jeopardise Holden sales

[99AUXR]

Originally Posted by Eaturbo

I wouldn't be too sure, they gave there intellectual property for there gearboxes to him and so too are ZF as well to build gearboxes for BMW. Money from the government and how much he's prepared to pay GM will be the deciding factor in if it happens or not.

Time will tell

[LoudPipes]

Originally Posted by Brazen

The difference is the Commodore will be competing against this so could jeopardise Holden sales

I think it’s important to note that this is what differentiates the business risk of selling this platform compared to offloading an unwanted company or just a component.

It would be a very ballsy corporate decision to place your outgoing platform into the hands of a competitor knowing your current customer base respects and loves that RWD product when you want that same customer base to move onto your new RWD platform.

[Eaturbo]

Originally Posted by LoudPipes

I think it’s important to note that this is what differentiates the business risk of selling this platform compared to offloading an unwanted company or just a component.

It would be a very ballsy corporate decision to place your outgoing platform into the hands of a competitor knowing your current customer base respects and loves that RWD product when you want that same customer base to move onto your new RWD platform.

You have a good point there, it would be a very risky move but would depend on how the contract of sale was written up. My guess is that they want to just continue building the same car with the same parts and model mix. This could be bad as you said for future sales of a front wheel drive replacement Commodore. How long could you continue to build a 11 year old car that's fast getting old compared to others. It might work well for HSV but. I'd say there's little chance of it happening but while there's a chance it's good for Australia. They would need to also inject substantial capital to design a new body shape to put over the top of the zeta platform which would take 3 to 4 years to do. This puts the VF at 15 years old. Doesn't make for a good business plan.

[Sprintey]

And Mr Dumarey knows this:

"For me, the rear wheel drive platforms are premium platforms..."

Edit: he also sees the unibody ute as a world market. Nice vision.

[LoudPipes]

Originally Posted by LoudPipes

I think it’s important to note that this is what differentiates the business risk of selling this platform compared to offloading an unwanted company or just a component.

It would be a very ballsy corporate decision to place your outgoing platform into the hands of a competitor knowing your current customer base respects and loves that RWD product when you want that same customer base to move onto your new RWD (I meant FWD) platform.

There's a typo at the end, RWD should read FWD.

[LoudPipes]

I’m not sure why the journalist who wrote the article isn’t being more investigative and in particular analysing the many different business and government components that would need to be brought together to bring a venture such as this to fruition.

Everything about the article and what Dumarey has to say is very superficial.

At face value any Senior Executives that were to be part of a management committee who gave their competition assistance or in any way helped to spawn new competition that could eat away even 1% of their market would be cut into strips and flushed down the toilet.

Vehicle manufacturing is a cut throat business and decisions like this would only be made where it benefited the original owner.

To sell even a redundant asset that has the potential to hurt your own bottom line would require a high level of compensation, royalties and restrictions on market penetration to the point it would probably make the deal unpalatable for the new owner.

Unless of course there was Government intervention that offered funding to prop up the new venture to ensure its existence.

Given the Australian Government wasn’t prepared to assist an existing industry I can’t see the funding of a gamble based on speculation with a product that has proven in recent times to at best have limited appeal in the market place being easily forthcoming.

Consumers will not buy on local loyalty alone anymore and given this fellow is not Australian that would be even a harder sell to them.

Tugging at the heart strings to keep a local industry alive or to provide local jobs won’t necessarily have the impact it could of had two years ago as the public has already lost interest in its disappearance.

Any venture into an international market would be a very slow process which would require the injection of countless millions over a very long term as customer awareness, confidence, patronage and needs are earnt to gain market strength before any profit could be envisaged.

This is not a matter of manufacturing a good transmission and selling it to another manufacturer on its merits, this is selling an unknown product to many individual customers which is a much harder task and it could prove disastrous if it turns out to be a product they don’t want.

Giving a slow moving Government process only 12 months to act will also not help his case, this idea is something he should have jumped on the moment the shutdown was announced.

As there are many holes in the reporting, it would be interesting to read something from a journalist that reports on business affairs and not one that reports on automotive news.

[Brazen]

More details

http://carsales.mobi/editorial/detai...3Dnews&index=3

Exclusive: Denali four-door ute part of Dumarey’s Zeta plan

A four-door utility based on the GMC Denali XT concept car developed by Holden would be on-sale as soon as 2019 if Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey’s audacious long-shot plan to gain control of the current Commodore and the Elizabeth assembly plant is successful.

But it’s only one model among a string of derivatives that Dumarey and his team have crystal balled as part of ‘Project Erich’, the plan to purchase Elizabeth from General Motors and keep the Commodore and its locally-developed Zeta monocoque architecture in production.

Dumarey’s interest in the locally-developed Commodore and Elizabeth, which are both earmarked for the chop by the end of 2017, was exclusively revealed by motoring.com.au on November 27.

He has since revealed the timing of his pitch and in-depth details of his plans for Zeta and Elizabeth during an interview at his Strasbourg headquarters last week.

Project Erich calls for a dramatic overhaul of the drivetrains and chassis systems used by the architecture, up to 16 derivatives, distinct premium and dual-purpose light commercial retail channels and a strong export program to back up local sales.

Agenda items include 400-500Nm turbo-diesel powertrains, left-hand drive, all-wheel drive, hybridisation, eight-speed automatic transmissions and CNG for spark ignition engines.

“The ute is the only unibody ute in the world. And this has some value absolutely,” Dumarey told motoring.com.au.

“There is not a diesel in the program for light commercial and it is necessary,” he added.

“There’s a lot of technologies that we have in-house here that we can combine for the future.”

More than once the Holden ute was on the verge of gaining left-hand drive sign-off from General Motors to be sold in the USA as a new generation Chevrolet El Camino but never gained the green light.

The Denali broke cover at the Chicago auto show in 2008. Based on Zeta and developed at GM’s Australian design studio it never officially made it past the concept stage.

An independent source knowledgeable with its development for production confirmed 2019 as a best-case scenario for the start of manufacturing.

Potential dual-purpose models apart from the ute and the four-door include 2+2 ute, a modern day Sandman and a raised height all-wheel drive wagon in the vein of the Audi allroad family.

On the premium side, an all-wheel drive sports coupe is on the list of potentials as a flagship.

Dumarey revealed a particular affection for the HSV models developed by the Walkinshaw Automotive Group and said he would like to continue the relationship if he gains control of Zeta.

He said the overall ambition for the premium channel was to evolve the cars over time to a BMW level of refinement.

“What we must do - and it is what the German car industry is doing – is look more to the premium and the super premium and focus on a certain moment and a certain size of car. We focus on rear wheel-drive and all-wheel drive platforms.

“In two years time you can get the ride out of a Zeta platform that you have the same feeling as BMW,” he claimed. “Because you fit with technology from shock absorbers, from steering, gearbox, calibration.”

While that all might sound fanciful, many of the technologies including hybrid are already being developed at the Punch Powerglide Strasbourg transmission factory owned by Dumarey and which already supplies the 6L45 auto to Holden for V6 Commodore derivatives.

Dumarey stressed the Elizabeth plant was a key part of Project Erich because of its flexibility.

“In Elizabeth you see your ute, your long wheelbase, your short wheelbase, you see your station wagon. You have more models.

“What for us is important, is the platform adapted to like you have an Audi A6 Allroad; seven centimetres higher and you put a diesel in it, you put all wheel drive in it, hybrid, eight-speed.”

Dumarey bought the Strasbourg facility from GM in late 2012, gaining a free license to develop the 6L transmission family as part of the deal. ZF eight-speed autos are also manufactured at the site.

Dumarey is convinced the Zeta architecture is a quality basis for vehicle development, even though it will be discarded by General Motors at the end of 2017. He is hoping that GM will not only sell him the Adelaide plant but hand over a free license to Zeta.

“The platform is dead and because it is obsolete then we can say ‘give us a free license,’” he explained.

“It [the platform] is a single affair. It is an isolated single Australian affair.”

“For me rear wheel drive platforms are premiums platforms and I think this Zeta/Omega platform, which was originally developed in Germany, is a good platform.”

He is convinced that his rebadged model line-up would prosper out from under the management of General Motors in the same way Jaguar Land Rover has benefitted from its move from Ford to India’s Tata and Volvo from Ford to China’s Geely.

“It [JLR] was bought for $1.5 billion by Ratan Tata and everybody said ‘an Indian guy what will he do? They are now on 425,000 cars and they go to double. Step by step by step.

“The same at Volvo. Volvo is Chinese owned. It was under the umbrella at Ford but now it is much better,” Dumarey stated.

by Bruce Newton 22nd December 2015

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