Although GM says it’s still figuring out details of General Motors Speciality Vehicles (GMSV) in Australia, Walkinshaw looks one step ahead.
Walkinshaw Group, the company which owns Holden Special Vehicles, has already registered the GMSV name. As HSV’s future hangs in doubt, GMSV is the next logical step for Walkinshaw to continue offering a vehicle brand in Australia.
A subsidiary of Walkinshaw Group and operating in partnership with GM, Holden Special Vehicles was a brand which enlivened Aussie-built Holden Commodore sedans and utes with more power, handling, and styling, but now it offers no Holden-related product as the Colorado ends supply. Everything else in its stable wears Chevrolet’s bow-tie badge.
As Practical Motoring has learned, Walkinshaw Group already owns and operates the GMSV website name in Australia and is currently cloaking that server with its HSV website. Type in GMSV.com.au and it points to the HSV website.
This could mean that GMSV will replace the HSV domain once an official announcement is made, though this has not been confirmed by any source. Currently, neither Walkinshaw/HSV or General Motors has made an announcement to confirm who will take on GMSV operations in Australia.
When General Motors made its announcement last month that it was closing Holden, both GM international operations senior vice-president Julian Blissett and ex-Holden boss Mark Reuss said that GM was talking to ‘partners’ about introducing GM Speciality Vehicles brand into Australia, without confirming who was involved.
“We do believe there is a future. Our intention is through the GM speciality vehicles (business) model. The detail of what product and how we go to market is still to be confirmed,” said Blissett.
“We are in discussions with our partners here in Australia and New Zealand as to how we will do that.
“Although it’s not firmed up formally, our intent and our desire is to stay in the market albeit in a different format, a different [business] model.
Mark Reuss said in his statement that “We do believe we have an opportunity to profitably grow the specialty vehicle business and plan to work with our partner to do that.”
Although records obtained show that Walkinshaw began using the GMSV name since at least July 2019, it is likely that GM and Walkinshaw were already in conversation about GMSV before the Holden closure announcement as most of the vehicles HSV converted and sold were Chevrolet branded.
Practical Motoring has reached out to Walkinshaw for comment however there is nothing to be announced at this time.
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