22 February 2006
Mark Hinchliffe
Ford has unwittingly played its part in Holden's return to diesel passenger cars, which could include an oil-burning Commodore.
GM Holden surprised everyone when it announced at the Melbourne Motor Show last week that it would introduce an Astra diesel later this year.
The driving force behind Holden's decision came from executive director of product planning Ian Cleave.
"I've been a diesel campaigner for many years; ever since I drove my first modern-generation diesel. It was a Ford Focus when I was on holidays in France," he said.
"Ever since, I've pushed for Astra diesel and diesel generally.
"The opportunity was there that there was a competitive diesel from Vauxhall and Opel."
The Astra diesel will feature the 1.9-litre turbocharged diesel engine from the European Vauxhall and Opel Astras.
Cleave said the turning point was January 1 when diesel fuel sold in Australia was required to have a lower sulphur content.
"We feel that now that diesel fuel quality in Australia has been brought up to almost Euro levels the time was perfect to launch into the Australian market.
"We wanted to be the first mainstream brand in Australia to launch a diesel passenger car."
And a Commodore diesel may not be too far away, either.
"We've tested a number of engines in Australian conditions. We've had diesel Commodores running for two years now," Cleave said.
He said they had experienced no technical issues in testing except for fuel quality.
However, he said their research showed that diesel buyers were typically small car buyers with significantly higher incomes and high education standards.
"They are people who are technology savvy who are buying diesel not for fuel economy but for performance and the technology image factor," he said.
"They are typically younger people, but also empty nesters."
GM Holden boss Denny Mooney said he expected Astra diesel would represent about 10-12 per cent of the total, despite Volkswagen Golf and Peugeot 307 diesels now passing 50 per cent.
GM Holden's new executive director of sales and marketing, Alan Batey, said that when they asked dealers how many they thought they could sell "they asked for double the Astra diesels we felt we would need".
"We went back to them and said we will not accept those orders," he said.
"I am not going to set a sales target on the up side. It's not to grow volume, but to show technology.
"It will be positioned to be great value and we will see what happens; let's see if the demand is there."
He said that if demand was high, Holden was equipped to meet supply.
Cleave said the market potential for Astra would depend on the price of diesel fuel.
"As refineries' capacity in Asia is better aligned to demand then the price of diesel will be consistently slightly above petrol."
The Astra diesel will be launched later this year. No prices are yet set.
Batey confirmed that a diesel Commodore was inevitable. "Not at the launch but down the track at some time," he said.
"If there is a move toward it we will have our finger on the pulse and will be on to it."
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