Holden designs China show stars

For the third time in 2010 - but not the last - the team at Holden Design has created a show star for General Motors. Actually, there are two at Auto China 2010, one from fantasyland and the other potentially from tomorrow land.

The EN-V is a pure dream machine, created to showcase the potential for individual city transport systems and to star in the GM pavilion at the World Expo in Beijing from next month, but the Volt MPV5 could easily become a showroom reality.

The Chinese concepts follow the Chevrolet Aveo concept, which was designed and built by the Holden crew as a teaser for the all-new Holden Barina and unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in January.

"A lot of the concept cars are now done in Australia," says Kevin Wale, himself a transplanted Australian who is president of GM China. "They have got capability there. That's part of the global design process, to find out where the best designers are in the world and then allocate the work to them."

This time the EN-V and MPV5 concepts were designed outside Australia but then built at Fishermans Bend, where the advanced styling studio has the capacity to handle all the work from a computer sketch to a running car. "With today's 24-hour instant data transmission, it doesn't matter where you sit. You get the best input from the best designers. They will just put the work where it is needed," says Wale.

It's an approach which worked brilliantly for the Chevrolet Camaro, which was designed as a coupe and convertible in Australia for production and sales in the USA. The MPV5 show car is the first significant stretch of the mechanical package beneath the Chevrolet Volt sedan, the extended-range hybrid which will eventually join the Holden showroom range in Australia.

The mini people mover is longer and wider than the sedan and is intended to show what can be done with the hybrid powertrain for different countries. It's not particularly adventurous in design but shows the potential in the Volt package.

It also shows the capability in Fishermans Bend and hints at what could be coming before the end of the year, most likely at the Paris Motor Show in October. Holden designers have done the job for GM once before at the French event, creating a race-style concept - the WTCC Ultra - which previewed a small Daewoo hatch called the Holden Viva.

Wale says more and more design work is being done in Fishermans Bend because it is recognised as a global asset at GM. "A few years ago they went and hired a lot more designers. They are building up quite an international reputation," Wale says.