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Holden Elizabeth Plant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Holden Elizabeth Plant
Southern corner of the Holden plant in Elizabeth South, South Australia.
Built1963
LocationElizabeth, South Australia
IndustryMotor vehicle assembly
Products
Area303.94 acres (123.00 ha)
Address180 Philip Highway, Elizabeth, South Australia
Defunct20 October 2017

The Holden Elizabeth Plant was a vehicle manufacturing facility in Elizabeth, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, operated by Holden from 1963 until 2017. It succeeded the Woodville Plant as South Australia's main assembly facility.[1]

The plant pressed and assembled bodies with engines from its Port Melbourne Plant in Victoria.[2]

History

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The plant opened in 1963, after the majority of tooling from the Woodville Plant was transferred to Elizabeth. The first vehicle produced at the plant was the Holden EH.

Elizabeth became the last remaining Holden plant in 1989 after Dandenong closed. After production of the VL Commodore ceased.

In 2006, the plant underwent a redesign known to have cost more than $1 Billion (AUD), this budget was shared with Holdens development of the General Motors Zeta platform, of which's introduction in the Fourth Generation VE Commodore led to the retooling of the facility. [3][4]

Australian production of the Cruze ceased in 2016, leaving the Commodore and its ute derivative to be the only vehicles being produced at the plant.

The Elizabeth facility was the last large scale automotive manufacturing facility in Australia to close after the Mitsubishi in 2008, Ford in 2016 and Toyota earlier in 2017.

Holden Special Vehicles, Holden's Melbourne based, factory backed performance subsidiary ordered 300 Holden Commodore sedans months in advance to the plants closure in preparation for Holden's last hurrah, the Gen F2 HSV GTSR W1, surplus LS9 V8s from Chevrolet's C6 ZR1 gives the Holden 474kW of power and 815Nm of torque. These vehicles are now worth upward of $1 Million (AUD).[5]

The last vehicle, a 'Red Hot' VF Holden Commodore SS V Redline (which is currently in the collection at the National Motor Museum, Birdwood) rolled off the line on October 20, 2017.[6]

As of 2023, the factory has been converted to a mushroom farm.[7]

Products

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References

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  1. ^ "General Motors Holden Elizabeth Plant". gmauthority.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  2. ^ "GM-Holden Port Melbourne Plant". gmauthority.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  3. ^ "Billion dollar baby". Sydney Morning Herald. 2006-07-19. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  4. ^ "PM - Holden rolls out 'Billion Dollar Baby". ABC News. 2006-07-17. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  5. ^ "W1 - Australian Superpower". Holden Special Vehicles. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  6. ^ "last holden built in australia". voanews.com. 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  7. ^ "Ex-Holden plant to begin producing thousands of tonnes of mushroom products". ABC News. 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2024-04-13.