A milestone in Australian automotive history today with the unveiling of the Australian-made Series II Holden Cruze range. Previously, Holden imported Cruze from the General Motors plant in Incheon, South Korea.
The new Holden Cruze lineup is available in four models – CD, CDX and two newcomers SRi and SRi-V. With fuel economy as low as 5.6l/100kms from a new 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine, Cruze is Australia’s most fuel-efficient home-grown car.
As well as the new 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, the locally-built Cruze is powered by two petrol engines – the existing 1.8-litre and a new turbocharged 1.4-litre. All are complaint with Euro 5 emissions standards.
Underneath, the switch to local manufacturing has enabled Holden to better tune the Cruze for local conditions. Among the refinements, 1.4-litre versions ride on a Watts link suspension.
Styling has also been sharpened with revised front and rear fascias, new wheels designs and sports looks for the new SRi and SRi-V versions plus some new colours.
Big changes on the specifications front too with range-topping SRV-I Cruze equipped with full-colour integrated satellite navigation and 10GB hard drive audio.
While power and torque remain unchanged for the 1.8-litre petrol engine (104kW/176Nm), the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel delivers nine per cent more power (120kW) and 13.5 per cent more torque (360Nm). The new turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine drives through new six-speed manual and automatic transmissions to deliver 103kW/200Nm.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was on-hand at Holden’s Elizabeth, South Australia plant to welcome the new arrival on Australia’s vehicle manufacturing landscape. Local Cruze production was kick-started via $149 million grant from the Federal Government’s Green Car Innovation Fund plus $30 million from the South Australian Government.
General Motors also produces Cruze (with various nameplates) in North America, South Korea, Russia, China and India. Since its global launch in 2009, more than 500,000 Cruze models have been sold globally.
“This is Holden’s largest engineering and manufacturing program since VE Commodore but it’s also a successful private and public partnership which shows what can be achieved when industry and government work together,” explained Holden Chairman Mike Devereux. “Automotive production is the largest manufacturing industry in Australia and we are one of only (a) handful of countries in the world with this capability to design, build and sell cars.”
In a clear reference to the future of the Green Car Innovation Fund (now under review), Mr Devereux added: “Two years ago, during a make-or-break time for our people and our industry, we made the decision to build Cruze in Australia and it’s already creating new capabilities and opportunities for the industry and our critically important supplier community.”
The Cruze is based on General Motors’ global small car Delta architecture and joins the Commodore (based on the large car RWD Zeta platform) on the Elizabeth production line, making it one of the world’s most flexible automotive production facilities. Holden added 22 new robots, refurbished 48 others and added 1800new parts to the process in order to integrate Cruze.
Holden currently employs 2500 people in Elizabeth and with Cruze production commencing this month, the pant will be running two shifts per day, five days per week to produce 430 vehicles per day.
