A Belgian billionaire by the name of Guido Dumarey has announced his intention to save the Australian-produced Holden Commodore despite General Motor’s plan to scrap the car at the end of 2017.
The Belgian has dubbed his bold plan Project Erich and believes he can succeed where GM has failed: to make the recently-updated Commodore a truly global vehicle. He plans to take the Commodore’s Zeta architecture and use it to develop a number of all-new rear- and all-wheel drive vehicles for both the Australian and global markets.
Dumarey has a lot of experience in the automotive industry. Currently, according to Motoring, his transmission factory actually supplies the six-speed auto ‘box used by a number of V6-engined Holden Commodore models, .
As of yet, he hasn’t approached Holden directly about his intention to purchase the Commodore’s Australian factory, insisting that his previous purchase of GM’s transmission plant taught him that, for such a deal to be successful, local government support is needed.
“The politic must do its role. The politic must say ‘listen, we have invested in this company, we cannot accept that you close it… Look for something else, but do not close it. You don’t need it any more, okay you don’t need it”, Dumarey said.
“Everything is planned. The next step is to inform all the parties with the right plan. And it happens next year. The announcement is that they will close in the end of 2017. In the first six months of next year we must work very hard to find solutions. 2016 is the key year. After ’16 we must not think about it, because all the programs have started to stop and it’s too late.”
Stay tuned for updates about the deal.
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