Insight from Australia and the latest info on this topic.
Australia, General Motors' decision to cancel North American plans for rear-drive premium vehicles means a diminished status for Australia in GM's global product pipeline.
In January, GM assigned Holden, its Australian subsidiary, as its global engineering center for its rwd platform, or Zeta architecture. GM also named Gene Stefanyshyn as Zeta's chief engineer.
But GM insiders say Stefanyshyn, the vehicle line executive for GM's Epsilon fwd mid-sized car architecture used in the Chevrolet Malibu and other cars, never moved to Australia, and his future in the Zeta program is unknown.
"We don't know the implications for Gene or his role as a VLE," a GM spokesman says.
Last week, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told employees in an e-mail that the current business climate forced a stoppage of Zeta's use in North America. Engineers and designers now will switch their emphasis to pulling forward GM's full-sized trucks and SUVs.
The news seemed to catch Holden off guard.
Holding pattern...
On March 3, Holden Chairman Denny Mooney told Automotive News he was greatly anticipating Stefanyshyn's arrival in Australia.
Tony Stolfo, Holden's design director, said the next generation of Zeta essentially was in a holding pattern waiting for Stefanyshyn's direction.
"We're just waiting for Gene. When he gets here, he'll set the direction," Stolfo admitted.
GM executives had weighed the decision to stop Zeta for "about a month," one GM insider says.
GM had planned to use the architecture as the basis for products that were scheduled to launch in North America in 2008 as sedans, sport wagons and coupes.
Lutz told employees the decision does not mean GM has canceled plans to build rear-drive vehicles altogether.
Mooney admitted "there is a lot of technical interaction on how we do our rear-wheel drive and how they do it," he said. Over time, Mooney said, there could be more sharing between Australia and the United States.
GM has invested heavily in developing Holden's engineering and design facilities in Port Melbourne, adding a $6 million virtual design room, one of only a handful of virtual design studios in the world.
Holden design executives work daily in the design studios, collaborating with counterparts in Warren, Mich.
Design reviews...
Mooney said he has met at least quarterly with Lutz on design reviews.
"I'm going to say it probably is going accelerate," Mooney said.
One North American supplier says GM's Zeta vehicles were completely engineered in Australia and were ready for tooling. The forecast volume was 400,000 globally.
With that much work done, it was surprising to see North American production canceled, the supplier said: "It was essentially all baked in Australia. All they needed to do was to put in a plant here."
The supplier says 50,000 units will still go to China.
But, as for North America, the supplier says: "For now, they say it's canceled."
>>>For Sale? Clicky!<<<
-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----
