The Greening Of Holden

Newcastle Herald

Saturday December 13, 2008

By BRENT DAVISON

THE world's car industry might be in turmoil right now but Holden boss Mark Reuss can see light at the end of a fairly long tunnel, the light shining from a range of ecologically friendly cars headed up by Chevrolet's Volt, a plug-in hybrid small car set to go on sale here by 2012.

And there is every chance the Volt will be badged with Holden's lion rather than Chevrolet's bow tie, in much the same way it is slated to be badged as an Opel in left-hand-drive Europe and a Vauxhall in right-hand-drive Britain.

Volt is the car tipped by many as the turnaround vehicle for cash-strapped Chevrolet, a car driven by a lithium-ion-powered electric motor and using its internal combustion engine not as a primary drive unit but as a generator for the battery pack that can also be charged by mains power.

Holden will embark on the green route long before Volt arrives in Australia, though, and is planning to roll out the first of its more fuel-efficient vehicles next year, starting with cylinder deactivation on its V8 engines, a process that shuts down cylinders under particular conditions to improve fuel economy.

The company will also "do a Saab" and introduce a V6-engined Commodore model capable of running on E85 fuel, a 15 per cent petrol, 85 per cent ethanol blend which, while less fuel-efficient than a straight petrol engine, derives most of its power from a renewable resource.

Mr Reuss says the E85 Holdens will be part of our roadscape by 2010.

Holden says it is working with American bio-fuel maker Coskata to built the first cellulosic ethanol plant in Australia. The Coskata plant, which produces fuel from waste product, would be its first outside the United States.

The environmentally friendly cars will wear "Ecoline" badges to set them apart.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home