Holden admits it's been a difficult year

Holden Chairman Mike Devereaux describes the past 18 months as "the toughest in history."

For the first time, Holden's chairman and managing director, Mike Devereux, reveals the pain of the global financial crisis and how it "literally overnight" blew off Holden's vital export contract for 50,000 Pontiac G8 cars.

“The last 18 months have been the most difficult in history,” he says.

But he says his company has taken a surprising turn.

Early next year, the company will post a multi-million dollar profit for 2010, its first annual positive figure in five years.

He returned his employees to full-time work after the work-sharing program. He recently added 165 employees to his Adelaide plant, and there could be more if Holden manages to secure a major contract with US police cars.

For every other country that operates in Australia, five of its employees are on international business trips to other parts of the GM world.

Holden has embarked on a financial venture to produce ethanol fuel from municipal waste, expanding its alternative fuel models, and will release 18 new or updated models within 10 months.

Key to the turnaround was Holden's role in designing and building new cars.

“Look at the car they chose to overclock in the daytime auction when GM went public last month — the Chevrolet Camaro,” Devereaux says.

“Typical American muscle car and hero of movies like Transformers. Vehicle designed and engineered by the team (Holden), tested at Lang Lang and built in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

“Welcome to the new GM, where one of the most loved American cars of all time can be designed and built by two members of the Commonwealth – and they can do it better than anyone else in the world. An all-American car designed in Australia and built in Canada."

Devereaux says that Holden's ability to adapt to the niche and the needs of the international market led him to bid to produce the Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV). This eases the pain of losing the Pontiac G8 program a bit.

“Chevrolet is in the middle of a 20-city testing program,” he says of long-wheelbase trial models built in Australia and shipped to the US. “Five out of 20 cities have been completed. We know we have a great product...and expect results in the first quarter."

In parallel, Holden builds pilot cars for the police of nine US states that took part in the tender for the "detective" version of the Caprice. Production will start next month.

“At this time, we cannot disclose the number of orders in the system, but we are confident that the number of orders will continue to grow in the new year,” says Devereux.

He says the company is as much an exporter of human resources and software as it is of automotive hardware.

But in addition to being known as a leader in rear-wheel drive cars, Devereux says Holden is working for the future.

“EN-V (Electric Networked-Vehicle) is Holden's cosmic vision of the future of urban transportation, which was showcased at this year's Expo in Shanghai,” he says.

“This is an all-electric, two-wheeled, zero-emission concept vehicle designed to address big city challenges such as traffic congestion, parking availability and air quality. EN-V highlighted the cutting-edge design capabilities of Australian automotive designers, but also showed that Holden is designing the showroom of the future and there is something for everyone in this showroom.”