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It was recently reported that the death of the Pontiac brand could cost Australia's Holden as much as $1 billion a year due to lost G8 sales, but the Aussies may have a backup plan in the form of Commordore/G8 police cars.
Working together, the LAPD, the Australia-based National Safety Agency and GM's Holden division have come up with a police-only version of the Commodore/G8 that the backers say has "enormous" potential. The NSA says that, since showing a concept vehicle at a recent conference, they've received interest for the car from around the U.S., as well as Canada, the UK, the Middle East and Asia.
In the U.S., many agencies are looking for replacements for the Ford Crown Victoria, which will be phased out next year. Ford reportedly sells as many as 60,000 Crown Vics every year to police departments and the NSA hopes to swoop in on that market when Ford pulls the plug. To do so, its G8 will have to compete with the Dodge Charger and Carbon Motors' E7, which are also vying for a piece of the police car market. If all goes to plan, though, the NSA and Holden hope to sell 40,000 G8 police cars a year in the U.S., though they'll likely be badged as Chevys.
If they can sell 40,000 cars per year, they'll easily eclipse the civilian Pontiac G8's sales and bolster Holden's bottom line. The car, which is being billed as the most technologically advanced police car in the world, is loaded with high-tech features like license plate readers, facial recognition software, on-board cameras and more. The car would be built and outfitted in Australia and shipped to the U.S. as a turn-key car. It would also be easy for Holden to build, as the company already builds a left-hand drive Commodore for the U.S. and other markets. It would also allow the company to restart its idled G8 assembly line, which was shut down in anticipation of Pontiac's demise.
Australia's GoAuto also reports that maintaining G8 exports to the U.S. in the form of police cars also leaves the door open to the return of a civilian model. Though GM CEO Fritz Henderson told reporters that no Pontiac models would shift to other brands, GoAuto is quick to point out that he didn't specifically mention the G8, which has been gaining sales every month since its introduction.
GoAuto goes so far as to say that there is a good chance that we'll see a Chevrolet version of the G8 in the near future (a new Impala perhaps?) and that plans still exist to bring over the Holden Ute as a GMC now that the Pontiac G8 ST sport truck has been killed. Following through on any of these plans would allow GM to spread around the cost of its Zeta rear-drive architecture, which is currently only being used for the Chevrolet Camaro in the U.S.
Whether the NSA and LAPD's plan catches on remains to be seen, but it stands a reasonable chance of succeeding. Carbon Motors' purpose-built E7 is still a prototype at this point and police agencies have just started to look at the Dodge Charger, so there's still a window open for Holden. And if it means the G8 could live on as a Chevy and we might get a new GMC Caballero, we can live with having to learn a new set of headlights to watch out for in the rearview mirror.
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