What's next? Why General Motors Australia is running out of options after the launch of the GMC Yukon Denali

General Motors Australia is running out of options.

The American automotive giant has just introduced its third brand into the Australian market, with GMC now available here alongside Chevrolet and Cadillac. The new GMC Yukon Denali joins the Chevrolet Silverado and Corvette as well as the new Cadillac Lyriq in Australian showrooms. But it also represents one of the last new models the conglomerate could offer in Australia in the near-future.

Put simply, there aren’t many other models in the broad General Motors portfolio that could make sense here. Cadillac has the most growth potential, with the Optiq, Vistiq and Lyriq V already confirmed for local sale. But despite introducing the GMC brand, it looks to be a one model brand.

The challenge for GM Australia and its GM Speciality Vehicles off-shoot, which oversees Chevrolet and now GMC, is that while the Cadillacs and Corvettes are built in right-hand drive from the factory, there are no other such options available. That means anything else would need to be converted to right-hand drive locally, by GMSV’s partner Promoso; which now has 140 employees working on GM products.

The obvious challenge with right-hand drive conversion is the cost it adds into the vehicle, which is why the more premium GMC brand was chosen for the Yukon SUV, rather than introducing the Chevrolet Tahoe - as both the Yukon and Tahoe sit on the same underpinnings as the Chevy Silverado. By opting for the more premium brand, it has allowed GM Australia to price and position the Yukon in a semi-premium area of the market.

GM Australia Managing Director Jess Bala is still confident the brands have room to grow.

 ”I mean, we're always assessing what might make the most sense for our market from an opportunity standpoint, from within the GM portfolio,” she told CarsGuide.

“So I would say that that work's never done. We're having discussions all the time. From a GMSV standpoint we've just agreed to open two more dealerships, one's already open in Springwood in Queensland.

“So I was looking at those growth opportunities to allow us to maximize our own sales volume, but also provide the support that we think our customers should be getting in a country of our size and geography. So I'd say no, we’re still very much believers we're in a growth phase and working with the team back in the US as to what those other opportunities could be and should be.”

However, there are not many other GM models available for right-hand drive conversion that could be offered here at a competitive price, besides the likes of the Tahoe and GMC Sierra pickup, which are simply alternative versions of what’s offered here already in the Yukon and Silverado.

“ Definitely for conversion, a hundred per cent, you're a hundred per cent correct,” Bala said. “But we're always in conversations as GMs working through product plans and next generations and things like that. When and if there might be an opportunity to study right-hand drive in the plant. That depends [on many factors]. It's got to be a much bigger global study, obviously extensive business cases, things like that.

“And then that's only part of it. And then if not, to your point, what could we look at potentially converting here? We're always working with Promoso very closely. They do a phenomenal job of finding efficiencies, cost savings and things like that. And then also learnings as they go.

“So, you know, there are things that they've discovered and improved from converting the trucks that are now being flipped into the Yukon conversion as well, and finding efficiencies. Obviously it definitely helps that it's all the one architecture underneath, it's all off the T1 platform, but we're always assessing what else could be and what makes the right sense, especially in a very competitive and saturated market.”

She added: “And to your point, from a conversion standpoint, it really doesn't make a lot of sense for us to bring in… a very mainstream model entry that's just gonna be priced higher when we're in so much heavy competition.”

That effectively rules out any chance a vehicle such as the Chevrolet Colorado, the smaller sibling of the Silverado, which would make a natural rival to the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, could be offered here as it would be much too expensive to be competitive after local conversion.

 ”It would,” Bala admitted. “Knowing where the, the two main players in the mid-size truck market are versus where we would end up if we had to convert it. We are better off as a company focusing on the full-size truck.”

But she’s confident that long-term GM management will look after its Australian outpost.

“ We have a very strong seat at the table and we've got some really great advocates back in the US that have learned a lot about us, have visited us in the last 18 months, two years to learn more about what we're doing and then what we could potentially do in the future,” she said.