Holden's seven millionth vehicle rolled off the production line today, creating a record manufacturing achievement in Australia's automotive history. The milestone vehicle was built at Holden’s Elizabeth plant in South Australia – one of the most flexible plants in General Motors' worldwide operations with 43 models based on six variants of the Commodore manufactured at the site.

Holden built Australia's first successfully mass produced car – the 48-215, in November 1948 at Fishermans Bend in Port Melbourne, Victoria.  At that time it took almost 14 years from that first vehicle rolling off the line to reach one million sales in 1962, with the five-million milestone coming 28 years later in 1990.

Future options include hybrid Commodore, alternative fuels research
A celebration to mark the event was held at the Elizabeth plant, with employees and guests including the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, the Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, and Holden's executive director of manufacturing, Rod Keane.

Senator Kim Carr spoke about the Australian automotive industry, citing it as one of the most important sectors of the economy. Carr elaborated that an estimated 96,000 people are employed directly and indirectly because of the local industry, and that it was "critical to the whole country." Carr concluded by emphasising the need to make sure the industry thrives, and that Australia should be playing a significant role in developing new technologies for greener cars.

Holden is currently looking at options to develop a hybrid Commodore, as well as other alternative-fuels, such as diesel and LPG. Currently GM has the technology to implement engines that run on ethanol, as it does with certain Saab models, although this is unlikely to be implemented on the Commodore.

Adapting to new global economy means focusing on export markets
Apart from developing more fuel-efficient models, Holden's other key strategy for the coming years will be to lower expectations for domestic sales and export more vehicles in order to take advantage of markets that are still embracing large cars, such as the Middle East. According to Holden, around 50% of its vehicles built in Australia will be sent overseas, including to the United States and Canada where the Commodore is already sold as a Pontiac G8.

Since it began exporting vehicles in 1954, Holden has exported over 800,000 units. While it may not have as large an export market as Japanese rival Toyota, Holden is certainly beating Ford in export numbers, with the Blue Oval still evaluating high volume exports for its Falcon.

Holden's seven millionth car in production

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