Holden's Elizabeth Timeline: 1958 to 2017

General Motors Holden Elizabeth Plant
The GM-Holden Elizabeth facility was once located in Elizabeth, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Construction on the plant began in 1958, she had her official opening in 1963 and was closed in October 2017.

History
The construction of the Elizabeth plant commenced in May 1958, with the groundbreaking celebration — a ceremonial pouring of concrete — witnessed by Managing Director Earl Daum. The plant’s body hardware plant opened in 1960 while the body and vehicle assembly plant opened in 1962. Queen Elizabeth officially opened the plant in 1963.

The Elizabeth plant played an important part in the development of GM-Holden, with the facility undergoing continual revisions, upgrades and modernization over the years until its closure in October 2017.

Closure
In December 2013, GM-Holden announced that it would transition to a national sales company and full-line importer in Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2017. The transition called for the closure of all manufacturing operations in Australia, including vehicle production at the Elizabeth plant and engine production at the Port Melbourne plant. It also meant a reduction of engineering operations in the country.

Between 2013 and 2017, 2,900 jobs would be lost over four years — 1,600 from Elizabeth and 1,300 from Victoria, which housed Holden’s Port Melbourne plant.

Timeframe
The first step in winding down the Elizabeth plant was the discontinuation of Holden Cruze production in October 2016. Then, in January 2017, Holden announced that October 20th, 2017 will be the last day of production for the vehicles that were still being built at the plant — the Zeta platform Commodore and Caprice. The cessation of manufacturing operations in the Elizabeth plant makes Holden the last automaker to shutter its manufacturing base in Australia, with Ford being first to do so, and Toyota being second.

Reasons For Closure
Though GM-Holden did not share official reasons for its transition into a national sales company, it is believed that the following factors played into the decision:
A lack of import tariffs, making it attractive to import vehicles into Australia rather than build them locally
An extremely strong Australian dollar, bringing the price of imported vehicles to a 30-year low
High labor costs in Australia which, coupled with a strong Australian dollar, makes it financially unattractive to operate a plant in the country
Low demand in the local market, making it financially unattractive to operate a plant dedicated to producing vehicles for Australia

Cruze Wind-Down
In 2011, the Elizabeth plant began assembling the compact Cruze car range 2011, creating 400 jobs in South Australia. The-then Prime Minister Julia Gillard drove the first Cruze off the production line in February 2011. Based on GM’s Delta platform, the Cruze saw initial sales surge, followed by a nosedive thanks to the combination of a strong Australian dollar and an artificially-devalued Japanese yen. The circumstance saw the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla rocket to the top of Australia’s new-car sales charts — ending the Holden Commodore’s 15-year winning streak in the process. On October 7th, 2016, Elizabeth workers built Holden’s last locally-made four-cylinder car: a Cruze SRI Z-series hatchback. The milestone came 50 years after the first four-cylinder Holden Torana and 41 years after the iconic Holden Gemini arrived in Australia. A total of 126,225 units of the Holden Cruze were built. Holden Elizabeth plant operations director Shaun Calvert stated that workers felt a sense of history and pride during the bittersweet moment in Holden’s journey.

“This morning that pride, mixed with some sadness, will be felt by everyone as the final two Cruze vehicles — a hatch and sedan — will be driven off our assembly line,” wrote Mr. Calvert upon the shut-down of the Cruze line at the Elizabeth facility.

The final two cars were donated to the Leukaemia Foundation, which held a raffle using the two vehicles to raise funds for patient support services and research. The end of Cruze production at Elizabeth resulted in 270 of the plant’s remaining 1,200 workers being made redundant.

Zeta Wind-Down
The final batch of Zeta-based Commodores, Utes and Caprices rolled off the line on October 20th, 2017.

*Info care of GM Authority