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Holden “will always have a V8 sports car”

We know that Holden is working on bringing some form of V8-powered sports car to Australia, but the brand has now stated it "will always have a V8 sports car".


Following on from our report earlier this year in which General Motors' executive vice president of international operations Stefan Jacoby confirmed Holden will offer a two-door sports coupe - likely the new-generation Camaro, which is set to be revealed on May 16 - the Lion brand's executive director of sales, Peter Keley, has suggested that a V8-powered sports car is engrained in the identity that Holden has developed over many years.

"It wouldn’t be a Holden portfolio without a V8 sports car," Keley said.

"We’ve already made that announcement – there’s no new announcement on that and there’s lots of conjecture as to what it might be," he said. "But Holden will always have a V8 sports car. That’s what the Holden brand has had for many decades and will have in the future."

Keley made the statement at the local launch of the new Astra and Cascada models overnight, and while he didn't give away a lot about what V8-powered model will effectively fill the shoes of the Holden Commodore SS when that car's time is up in 2017, he did suggest the brand is wholly committed to offering a car that will appeal to buyers who have grown up with V8 Holdens.

"Holden is leveraging the depth of the General Motors portfolio, at the same time understanding what the Australian and New Zealand consumer wants," he suggested.

"Our future product portfolio isn’t tied to one single source or one of the existing brands within General Motors," he said. "The fantastic thing about Holden is that we can take the cars that we believe will best suit the consumer in the Australian market.

"So if I were Chevrolet, I’d have no other choice but to take Chevrolet products. If I’m Opel, I have no other choice but to take Opel products. We're Holden – an Australian car company understanding Australian consumer needs – so I get to look at the whole portfolio," Keley said.

The sales chief reaffirmed the brand's plans to offer about one-third of its cars from Europe, but also gave away a few other source nations.

"Other cars will come from the US; other cars from Thailand; other cars from Korea. I think it’s a perfect situation, I love being in that situation," he said.

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