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Goodbye... Holden :(

Fu Manchu

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figjam

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Now that the ZB Commodore has been consigned to Holden history as an unwanted family child with dubious parentage, its b*st*rd cousins, Opel Insignia and Buick Regal are heading out of town within the next few years, if not sooner.
They are going to be replaced by some SUV / people mover electric thingy from Stellantis, the owner of of some of the best performing unreliable ****boxes from rundown brands across the motoring world.

Opel to replace Commodore ZB with SUV in 2024 - carsales.com.au

IF ..... Holden was still operating (as an independant) how would it have handled the sudden emergence of electric vehicles ........ the socially accepted saviours of the planet.
The ECOmmodore (4 door VT Monaro) was one of the first hybrids, which shows that Australian engineers were ahead of the pack at the time, but as usual with Australian industry, when you are on a good thing, somebody else will steal it, and the Australian input is forgotten..
 

vc commodore

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I vaguely remember reading the Corvette might be coming to Australia....Can't remember exactly where I read that or when, but it was recently.

In the Birdwood motor museum S.A, there is a VB (might be a VC) Commodore with an electric motor fitted....(It might be a battery) ....Don't know whether it is a driver, but it was there last time I was there (about 10 years ago)...

So yup, Holden was definately ahead of its time with Hybrid technology :)
 

Skylarking

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GM were supposedly leaders in EV propulsion, at various points in times going back to early days of motor vehicles... They dabbled with spark power but they always killed them off ...

Most notably was GM's (Delco Electrics) involvement in the moon buggy of 1971 and later their Chevrolet Electrovette of 1976. But probably the most know was the EV1 of 1996 - 1999. These vehicles were leased to end customers and in 2002 they were killed off by GM. All the leased cars were taken back by GM and the leese's were not offered a purchase option as their lease allowed, instead they wee sent to the crusher to the protest of those who loved driving them....

So it's not surprising that Holden, being a GM subsidiary, was allowed to also dabled with such stuff, presumably.... But i've not heard of the 1978 VB electric commodore so not sure if this was indeed done by Holden (though wouldn't be surprised if it was).

More interesting was Holden's small involvement in the 2012 Calais EV as built by EV Enginmeering Pty Ltd as documented on this RVD... The talk was Holden supplied the ICE vehciles and some engineering input and test facilities and that EV Enginnering (and the consortium it was part of) did the developement work. Supposedly the consortium spent @26M (including a $3.5M govco grant)... But were any sold?

Sadly, Holden being a subsidiary was probably told to pull its head in on many a developement to stop making GM developement look so bad...

Wonder how many managers who were pushing EV's are now grumbling "told you so" after seeing the explosive rise in Telsa and the equally explosive demise of GM and with it our beloved Holden...

It's a fcuked up world really and as a rsult we are back to digging holes and growing fleece while trying to sort out our trade imbalance... :rolleyes: Can't go far as a country if we end up relying on Barist's and Brothels to earn a crust :mad:
 
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