Quote:
But that doesn't mean Holden will have an easy run. The company says its factory must produce at least 105,000 vehicles per year to remain viable. Last year the Adelaide plant built fewer than 60,000 vehicles. Toyota built in excess of 120,000 vehicles (most of which were exported) while Ford built fewer than 45,000 vehicles in 2010.
"You have to do more than 105,000 or 106,000 cars a year to make the thing go," Devereux said candidly of Holden's factory in Adelaide.
The number of cars Holden makes locally is likely to grow when the Cruze sedan small car comes online in February, joined by the Cruze hatch in November.
Holden also has export ambitions for the Caprice as a police car for North America. The company has begun taking orders but is yet to reveal how many have been sold.
"Exports should not be crucial to our business, but we'd be stupid not to look at every opportunity," he said. "Just because we don't have to export cars [to remain viable] doesn't mean we don't want to."
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So if the author is quoting Deveraux, then a viable plant at 105,000 would pretty much guarantee that both Campbellfield and Elizabeth are not viable at the moment. But then even stranger when he says they dont have to look at exports to be viable.
With a 75% import ratio on the cruze parts, you would have to wonder how these would make the plant any more viable. But then again, they werent making money when they were making 200,000 cars a year.
If he's not trying to deceive, you gotta hand it to him for his optimism, by saying he has faith in the future of the commodre despite a near 15 year trend in declining sales for large cars.