A range of eco-friendlier Commodores have received the imprimatur of GM Asia Pacific boss, Nick Reilly (pictured) and could come to market as quickly as 2010. That's the news 'announced' in a press conference today held by the GM Group Vice President and President GM Asia Pacific at Holden's HQ in Melbourne.
Down Under for the car giant's quarterly regional board meeting, and also to review current and future product portfolios with a group of senior Asia Pacific execs, Reilly discussed the yet-to-be confirmed variants of Australia's favourite large car as part of a wide-ranging discussion of local and regional issues.
According to Reilly, a number of greener Commodore models could be in production within "a couple of years".
Reilly revealed turbodiesel and hybrid versions of the Commodore were under development, and also suggested GM's turbo four-cylinder petrol ECOTEC powerplant was also on the agenda for Australia's top-selling large car.
He confirmed the turbodiesel and hybrid variants would augment the current powertrain line-up, but said that a rationalisation of powertrains would need to take place in due course.
Quizzed on the brand's fuel efficiency priorities, Reilly said GM was pursuing a policy of working across a range of technologies.
He said LPG and E85 strategies would be quickest to market but added: "certainly diesels [are a priority] -- we already have [diesels] in several of our cars in Australia. We don't yet have diesel in Commodore but that will come. As for hybrids, again we will introduce hybrids in the next couple of years."
"Our strength in hybrids tends to be in larger vehicles so that's where you will see them first... [Hybrid Commodore] Could be one of the first [GM] hybrids you'll see. I would put a timeframe on that of a couple of years."
Reilly said the hybrid and turbodiesel Commodores would arrive "around about the same time."
"I don't think there is a priority [hybrid v diesel]," Reilly told the Carsales Network.
"Quite honestly I think we need both. I think we need to offer a variety of different answers and we're able to do that as part of GM worldwide. It's more a matter of how long does the engineering take to get done rather than [whether] hybrid's more important than diesel."
Reilly said suggestions the hybrid Commodore would mate GM's two-mode inline hybrid with a turbo four-cylinder petrol engine was "purely speculation".
When asked whether we could see a turbo four-cylinder petrol Commodore in the future, however, he said: "That is certainly a sensible suggestion. It makes a lot of sense and therefore we're probably looking at it."
Reilly's comments effectively green lighting hybrid and turbodiesel Commodores took local GM media minders by surprise. Holden boss, Mark Reuss, is yet to announce anything concrete on the proposed variants.
It's believed discussions regarding fastracking the hybrid and diesel models of the Commodore are still to formally take place. If not already a fait accompli, Reilly's obvious public support of such a program significantly improves its chances of getting the go ahead from within the GM product development bureaucracy.
Officially, Holden has yet to comment on the program, or indeed confirm the existence of advanced (ie: production feasible) programs to build hybrid, or turbodiesel Commodores.
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