Fuel laws to keep Chevy SS sales low

HOLDEN will be limited to exporting just 3000 VF Commodore SS models as the Chevrolet SS annually, as the bow tie brand struggles to keep its fleet’s collective fuel consumption down to a predetermined government controlled level.

This is according to executive vice president of General Motors in North America, Alan Batey, who added that American customer response to the Australian-built performance sedan has been very encouraging so far.

It had been previously reported in some publications that Chevrolet purposely limited the number of SS imports in order to maximize profitability through pent-up demand.

“Here in the US we have CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirements that we have to meet,” he told the Australian press in Detroit today.

“So this is going to be a niche for us – we’re talking around 3000 units – so we’re not going to grow it. But there is strong demand and everybody’s excited about it.”

Meanwhile, asked if there is scope for Holden to import a rear-drive V8-powered Cadillac model to Australia as the eventual Commodore SS replacement after 2017, Mr. Batey said it would depend on which models General Motors elects to engineer for right-hand drive.

“Cadillac in the US currently has a huge number of performance vehicles, but nothing currently with RHD in the portfolio – so it’s nothing I can see in the short term.

The President of GM, Mark Reuss, later added that he would evaluate the potential for RHD engineering on an individual model basis.

“Every vehicle we do in the future we will consider RHD for,” he said. “That’s all I’m saying.”