KOMPAS.com - Unprecedented roll-out planned to plug line-up gaps. Ford and Holden, under siege from fast-growing import-only brands, this week revealed bold new plans to expand and update their model line-ups during the next two years.
Holden claims it will unleash an unprecedented new-vehicle onslaught that includes a range of four-wheel-drives and a major update to the Commodore. Ford is countering with up to six new models and a big overhaul for its Territory soft-roader.
Both companies will bring out new one-tonne utes and budget off-roaders that will share the utes' workhorse underpinnings. Ford told its dealers it would expand the number of nameplates in its range from nine to 14 by the end of 2012.
The company is rumoured to be looking at replacing the Escape soft-roader with the next-generation Focus-based Kuga, while it is also believed to be keen on a smaller soft-roader (pictured), potentially based on the Fiesta.
Other candidates for the model expansion are the Ka city runabout, which would sit below the Fiesta and compete with Holden's recently released Barina Spark, and two luxury offerings — including a soft-roader — from US brand Lincoln.
Ford has also reshaped the Territory to bring it more in line with the company's global soft-roader design theme. Dealers who attended the launch say the visual changes are significant, creating a more rugged, masculine look. A diesel engine will be the centrepiece of the new model.
Holden will counter with a rash of new models designed to plug gaps in its range, including a smaller soft-roader that will join an expanded four-wheel-drive line-up.
"Over the next year and a half, Australian customers will see a roll-out of new Holden product like they've never seen before," Holden managing director Mike Devereux told the media at the launch of the Spark earlier this week.
"We will have new, world-class, market-leading Holden vehicles competing in almost every segment in this market."
Devereux said it was all about "pretty much filling up the portfolio". "We're now getting to the point where the true might of GM's global product-development factory is going to display itself in this country," he said. "We've got a plan to put something we're proud of and is world class in each [segment]. Every three months there's going to be something fairly large going on."
He said Holden would release 10 new models between now and mid-2012, with a mix of replacement vehicles and all-new models. And he hinted at a 4WD spin-off from the soon-to-be-revealed new Colorado ute, to go head to head with the likes of the Mitsubishi Challenger.
"There may be some variants of the utility ... you can use your imagination," he said
