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can we expand on our relationships with OEMs and the
reputation we built over 30 years, and use that to grow
our business.”
Has taking the next step forward required
substantial investment?
RW: “Yes. I won’t talk about the details, but these car
programs always require a lot of investment and that’s
what separates us from other automotive groups that
try to play in our sphere. We’re one of the few groups in
the world that can take a product right from inception
and design through the engineering and manufacturing
processes, and also bring it to market. But, obviously,
when you’re doing that much work, there’s a lot of
investment that goes into it.”
What sort of volumes are you looking at with
the new line-up?
TJ: “By the time we get to the end of 2018, we think
we’ll be around the 3000 unit run rate, which is roughly
where we’ve been for a long period of time. We typically
adopt fairly conservative business cases. But longer-
term, over a sort of three- or four-year period, we could
be looking at upwards of 4500-5000 units if done well.
We’re actually looking at it as a
growth opportunity. Our business
becomes more complex – we’re
running 3000 units over three
different programs as opposed to
what was essentially one program
- but it sets us up to grow.”
Will the Camaro appeal
to established HSV
customers? Will it steal
Mustang sales?
TJ: “Certainly, the traditional
buyer will be interested in
that space, given the nature of
the product. If you look at the
two-door sports sedan market,
obviously Mustang’s had a pretty
big impact there. But we haven’t set up to go after
Mustang. We’re focused on the fact that within its
competitive set, it’s an exciting product on its own. I
know the automotive business traditionally talks about
conquest sales, but we don’t really talk in those terms.
We just think about, ‘is that a great product and is there
a market for it?’ We think that market for us can be
anywhere between 1000-3000 units per year. It’s going
to come down to the final pricing and the overall spec.”
But Camaro and Mustang are traditional arch-
rivals in the market.
RW: “There’s always going to be a perception that
they’re direct rivals, sure.”
TJ: “You can see the impact Mustang’s had in the
marketplace, but there’s actually quite a bit of bandwidth
of products in that space. I understand the logical view
is that the Camaro is a traditional rival to the Mustang,
but we don’t actually look at it in that context. We go, ‘is
it a great product?’ Yes, so tick, and then we’ll work out
the other elements that come with that from volume
and pricing, etc.”
Will there be any HSV branding on the Camaro?
TJ: “There may well be a build reference – as in “Built
by HSV”. Effectively, we will have complied the vehicle,
so there’ll be a reference to our organisation on the
compliance plate”.M
“It’s actually
about getting
in the car and
driving it, and
once people do
that, we think
they’ll love it”