New Holden Commodore will slash fuel burn

Holden managing director Mike Devereux told the first Alternative Fuels Summit in Brisbane yesterday that "the little old internal combustion engine has come a long way," pointing out that the average fuel efficiency of Australian vehicles has improved 15 per cent in the past decade.

"When we launched VE (Commodore) in 2006 we had about 10.8 litres per 100km in the Omega and over the last five or six years we've been able to take that down to 8.9. That's an 18 per cent improvement in fuel economy. It's largely due to our approach to things like direct injection, a smarter approach to the way air flows underneath the vehicle and tiny things like a change last year to the tailgate of the vehicle to make air flow more efficiently off the back of the vehicle.

So there are ways to improve the old internal combustion engine and right now our fuel economy targets of 8.9 we are trying to take down to the mid 8s as we go forward into our next gen of Commodore which is about two years from now. We are going to do that through significant light weighting, significant uses of things like aluminium for the panels, things like electronic power steering, looking at every component in the car and trying to make it in a much more lightweight fashion.''

Devereux also declared all V6 and V8 Commodores will be E85 compliant from next month.

That's not free,'' he says. "Holden has actually invested ahead of wide availability of the fuel (ethanol) across the country. I don't want you to cry for Holden because it's a strategic decision we're making, but it costs us about $100 per car to make those vehicles capable of running on E85. We put a stake in the ground and said every Commodore will be capable of running on E85.''

Devereux told the conference he was encouraged when he came to Australia 18 months ago (from his previous position as president and managing director of GM Middle East) by "how involved the local manufacturers were in promoting of alternative fuels''.

"Ford actually have a fantastic new LPI system in their Falcon and we are launching an all-new mono-fuel LPG system in our Commodore next year,'' he says.

For the first time, he confirmed that the mono-fuel Commodore will have the LPG tank under the floor instead of in the boot. He says the barriers to LPG acceptance include the loss of cargo space, the "bomb-like'' tank and the availability of LPG.

"For some people it's kind of disconcerting when you open up the back of the car you see this very high-tech looking tank full of LPG. Our Commodore early next year will take the tank out of the back of the vehicle and put it under the vehicle, freeing up that space. It's all about removing the barriers and the perception that 'oh my god, there's a bomb in the boot' thing and making LPG seem like a very reasonable, easy to adopt technology.''

He says there are also barriers to acceptance in the limited supply and the slow pumping process. Devereux also told the summit that Australia could become a world centre for LPG expertise over the next five years.

"It is incredibly naturally abundant and the technologies to run this fuel are all here in this country,'' he says.