Holden show cars to continue

THERE was no head-turning Holden-designed concept at the Melbourne International Motor Show last week, but GM Holden design director Tony Stolfo revealed to GoAuto that his design studio was continuing to work on them.

“The tough economic times are a sign of where we are right now in terms of show cars, but I’m not saying that we’re not going to do show cars going forward – absolutely not. We’re working on them as we speak.” GM Holden chairman and managing director Mark Reuss also told GoAuto that there was still a lot of excitement surrounding show cars, and that concepts would continue to roll out from the lion brand.

“We still live and work in a very exciting industry and that’s why I come to work every day,” he said. “There’re lots of challenges – it’s a tough industry – but I think everybody is still very excited about cars in the industry and as long as people are excited about that I don’t see an end to that.

Left: Holden Efijy concept.

“(Concepts) are the exciting things that make me more excited about the industry, and automotive transportation is still an emotional purchase, it’s a passionate purchase, it’s a reflection of who you are and what you’re like, and I don’t think that changes. So long as that’s still true, which I think is (for) the foreseeable future in my lifetime, we’ll still make those things.” Mr Reuss also said there would be more non-production-oriented show cars like the acclaimed Efijy in the future.

“Yeah I think so. It’s the ultimate expression of where the auto industry is going, we’ve seen that in concept cars, and as we’ve also seen in the Efijy. It’s also a true reflection of the passion of the people who design and engineer these cars.” Meanwhile, Mr Reuss, in his capacity as president of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), was also called upon last Friday to be one of the signatories to the new Sydney-Melbourne motor show joint-venture agreement.

As GoAuto reported last year, the joint venture between the FCAI and the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) will see a single Australian International Motor Show held each year, alternating between Sydney and Melbourne from 2010.

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