GM Holden celebrated today as the first Pontiac G8 engineering prototypes to be produced at Holden Vehicle Operations in Elizabeth rolled off the line.

The G8 will be available in Pontiac dealerships in the United States in early 2008 to take its place among General Motors' flagship high performance vehicles.

The Pontiac G8 performance sedan will be the first North American product to be based on GM’s new global rear wheel drive architecture, developed by the global team based here in Australia.

Production of the Pontiac G8 is scheduled to commence at the Holden plant in late 2007, bringing the production line to a maximum capacity rate of 620 cars per day.

Announcing this production milestone was Holden Executive Director of Manufacturing, Rod Keane.

He was joined at the media event at the Elizabeth plant by government and industry officials including The Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, Federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources and the Hon Kevin Foley MP, Deputy Premier of South Australia and Minister for Industry.

Mr Keane said, “ The Pontiac G8 highlights GM Holden’s rear-wheel drive expertise. It shows that international borders pose no limits on the creativity and expertise demonstrated by a global team based here in Australia.

“General Motors is drawing on Holden’s recognised leadership in rear-wheel drive cars to be able to deliver uniquely tailored vehicles for markets in Australia, the United States, the Middle East and South Africa.

"With exports integral to GM Holden’s future business strategy, the flexibility we have here at the Elizabeth plant is central to achieving that. When full production of the Pontiac G8 gets underway we will be building cars here at Elizabeth for every continent except Antarctica.”

The export program will expand the model range at Holden’s Elizabeth plant to 18 domestic and 15 export vehicle lines.

Holden has Australia's longest running and largest automotive export program which has delivered more than 772,000 vehicles over the last 50 years.