General Motors Petone

A DigitalNZ Story by Brendan Graham

General Motors New Zealand Limited was opened in 1926 in Petone, Wellington (in Walter Nash's Hutt electorate). It was the first and most notable New Zealand plant for assembling motor vehicles and it produced all manner of vehicles over the years, from Chevrolets to Pontiacs to Vauxhalls and Holdens. By 1936 over 37,000 vehicles had been produced. With the advent of World War II, the factory was converted to munitions production, and the for the next six years a host of products and by-products were produced to host the war effort. A new assembly plant was also opened in Trentham in 1967. The Petone plant was eventually closed down in 1984 and the Trentham plant followed suite in 1990. They had produced 593,945 vehicles in total between them. Todd Motors Industries Limited was also set up in Petone (1934) for the assembly of completed knocked down vehicles from Chrysler and Rootes. It was producing around 100,000 cars a year by 1964, aquired the Mitsubishi franchies by 1970, but was sold to Mitsubishi in 1987. The Ford Motor Company of New Zealand Limited also established an assembly plant at Seaview, Lower Hutt, in 1936. The Ford Motor Company took over assembly a distribution from the Colonial Motor Company and became a big player througout New Zealand in various forms. Info from http://archives.govt.nz/gallery/v/Walter+Nash+Exhibition/Technology/Transport/NZ+vehicles/ View more in colour at https://www.facebook.com/ColourisingNZ/ https://www.facebook.com/ColourisingTheHutt/ http://www.colourising.nz/

General Motors, Petone, Wellington, Holden, GM