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The Substitute


The Substitute

Author: Jaedene HudsonDate: 11 January 2011
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Holden has revealed its next-generation Toyota Camry competitor will be built off the global platform that currently underpins some of its most competitive products.

Holden chairman and managing director, Mike Devereux, revealed the all-new model will be built on General Motors' global Epsilon II platform that underpins the Opel Insignia, Buick Regal, Buick LaCrosse and the 2012 Chevrolet Malibu.

The car will replace the current Korean-sourced Epica mid-sized sedan - a car Devereux identified as the weakest model in Holden’s line-up.

"Our weakest perform[ing] car is our D car [the Epica]," he said. "The Epica isn't competing as well as it needs to with Camrys and Accords and cars like that, even Mondeos. It was never intended to, it hasn't been engineered and [equipped] to; its price point is different.

"Epica doesn’t compete with a Camry... we know that. We don't even sell a four-cylinder version of it. You can't get a petrol four cylinder car of that size in an Epica. And that's what people want.

"We need to get a car that competes with a Camry and we will and that's not a Commodore."

Devereux said the Epsilon platform is stretched or shrunk depending on the model.

"The [Opel] Insignia is… a Regal here in the States, but that's a short-wheelbase Epsilon, Buick LaCrosse is a long-wheelbase Epsilon. In the same way we make Caprices and Commodores, we make Regals and LaCrosses or Insignias and La Crosses.

Our platform stretches - to make longer and shorter vehicles - just like we do with Zeta [the Commodore platform] and we will have a good short-wheelbase Epsilon to compete with Camry at some point.

"We will have a great front-wheel drive car D… It is a little bigger than [an Epica] but it won't be a Commodore-sized car. We'll have a world class one of those."

While the new car already has a name, Devereux would not reveal what it is. He did confirm, however, that it won't continue to wear the Epica badge, nor will it be called a Tosca as it is overseas.

"You could be probably pretty certain that it would be unintelligent to call it an Epica simply because it isn’t," he said.

Devereux said the new model could be built anywhere within the GM empire, but confirmed it won't be built here alongside the Commodore or the Cruze.

"We won’t do three architectures. It could come from here [US] it could come from many different places, but we are not going to [build it in Adelaide]. We do 46 variants in our path today without Cruze. This year when we start building Cruzes… It will be over 55 variants and that's enough. That's enough complexity for Adelaide, two platforms is enough."

Jaedene Hudson, NRMA Motoring & Services, January 11, 2011.

 

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