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Holden lost more than just sales figures in 2016.
Stefan Jacoby, head of General Motors International, has admitted that the Australian brand has lost relevance with customers.
Holden sales dropped by 8.4 per cent in 2016 and its share of the market was reduced by 0.91 per cent to 8.0.
But Jacoby justified the dip, saying the brand is still in a transition phase, moving from being heavily reliant on the locally-built Commodore to a fully-imported range, and as a result he is unfazed by the 2016 figures preferring to focus on the long-term vision.
"[Holden managing director] Mark [Bernhard] phrased this in the right way this morning - market share is not important in this transformation phase we are in at the moment, important is we are restructuring and transforming the business of Holden into a sustainable business," Jacoby told Australian media at the 2017 Detroit motor show.
"Where are we in Australia and New Zealand? I think we are in the middle of the transition," Jacoby said. "I think we used 2016 to really set the fundamentals. We defined the program with 24 new vehicles coming by 2020. We are in the middle of the roll-out of that.
"We are more or less changing all customer experience. We are working on the brand. The brand needs to be refreshed, it needs to be actualised. We understood that Holden was an iconic Australian brand and is an iconic Australian brand, but it lost over the years its relevance for the customers."
The plan for Holden is to introduce 24 new models by 2020. The key differences between Holden's previous plan and the future line-up is where the cars are sourced from.
Jacoby wants competitive models to compete against market leaders Toyota and Mazda, so Holden is phasing out its primarily Asian-sourced range - disappointing cars like the Viva, Epica and Captiva, with European and American models including the Astra, Equinox and Acadia.
That shift towards more premium vehicles is attracting different customers to the brand.
"What is part of that transformation we are in, customers we had in the past are maybe not the customers of our new products," Jacoby said. "Our customers are driving a Mazda3, a [Volkswagen] Golf, they are driving European vehicles and we want to come in this attractive segment."
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10 Comments
If Holden wishes to stay relevant then (1) continue racing (2) produce cars with ride/handling designed for Australia (3) have cars people want to buy and own with their own money (4) have naturally aspirated engines (like Mazda and Toyota mostly) (5) ensure their cars are reliable and where things go wrong fix it (6) don't chase every niche (7) stick with real automatic transmissions (8) remember why their icons (HQ, EH, VT, etc) resonated with the Australian public but don't produce faux retro copies
The problem for Holden is that it always had a signature model RWD sedan, be it a Commodore, Kingswood, EH, EJ or whatever. Now, they really are just an importer of various SUVs and small FWD Hyandai/Kia clones. As the photo above shows, none of their own models even have a unifying look about them, as just about every other brand does. Even Ford adopted a global look to apply to the Falcon and Territory when they were still being made. Jacoby is basically saying they want the Golf and Mazda3 customers now, which basically means they have no interest in the market that gave the company its success. Good luck with that, but why would you bother getting a re-badged import when you can get a genuine factory import from Mazda, VW, Kia or the other manufacturers? Holden has no relevance anymore.
24 new models mainly from Korea. Nothing to see hear but same old cheap FWD rubbish running on fossil fuels. Give me a Tesla Model 3.
Is there an English translation for this: The brand needs to be refreshed, it needs to be actualised.? Use of this sort of mumbo jumbo, and forgetting that your job is to build cars that sell, is why Holden has failed.
As DeeDee47 rightly points out the word actualised is the real reason that Holden will continue to lose market share... it sounds like a car part not a reason for people to buy a brand of car. Mr Jacoby may state that we want to come in this attractive segment. but he needs to have cars that people want to buy not things like the Captiva.
Is that the first Tesla troll for the year?
DJM61, so in other words, step back in time say 30 years
Chevy Australia's lineup basically consists of two crapy Daewoos (Cruze and Craptiva) and the thristy, poor handling, bad shifting, Commodore. And that is finishing up, so you'd be crazy to buy one, due to quality and part mish-mash. There's no mystery as to why they are struggling there. Holden's biggest challenge is going to be finding cars within the GM lineup that Australian's are going to find acceptable on a number of fronts. And I think the continued use of the Holden brand is not going to sit well with many people. It is fundamentally dishonest.
My last 5 cars have been - Japanese built Mitsubishi, V6 Commodore, Australian built V6 Camry, European built V6 Vectra and Japanese built Corolla - all with manual transmission. The Mitsubishi and Toyotas were bullet proof, while the Commodore and Vectra were simply bucketloads of trouble, particularly the Vectra. GM has some serious issues.
>(1) continue racing : Why ? Waste of money all round. With the Commodore gone (except in name) what need is there for the V8 Stuporcars ? >(2) produce cars with ride/handling designed for Australia : Obvious, and something all major players already do > (3) have cars people want to buy and own with their own money : It may actually make more sense for GM to target the Government and fleet market. Lots of Holden's in those areas already. >(4) have naturally aspirated engines (like Mazda and Toyota mostly) : Why limit to NA ? The days of a 4/6/8 are gone, the move is to 4 NA/4 turbo for basic and premium respectively. By sticking to NA it limits your market. Creating multiple variants of cars to suit different engine sizes is just adding engineering and production costs. > (5) ensure their cars are reliable and where things go wrong fix it : Not doing this hasn't hurt VW & Jeep. > (6) don't chase every niche : GM are big enough to play in every sandpit. Why not go after the niche markets. The smaller companies need to either single out the niches or keep out, but GM can (and does) have the resources to go everywhere. > (7) stick with real automatic transmissions : CVVT will replace automatics one way or another, and electric will make the choice irrelevant. > (8) remember why their icons (HQ, EH, VT, etc) resonated with the Australian public : HQ and EH outsold the competitors only because the public had always bought Holden, not because they were better cars (the EH in particular was rubbish by the standards of the time, and the XB was a better car than the HQ). VT I'd agree was about the last decent Commodore.