There is a new and surprising number one in the Australian auto industry – the Walkinshaw Automotive Group (WAG), which is claiming an unlikely triple crown.
WAG says it has the largest local workforce, the highest production output, and the biggest number of brands – six – under the Walkinshaw umbrella.
“We’ve had spectacular growth over the last five or six years. There is no-one else in the world that really is capable of doing what we do. We’re basically a mini car company,” WAG CEO Ryan Walkinshaw told CarExpert.
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Ryan Walkinshaw
From humble beginnings in 1987 as the performance vehicle division of GM Holden – Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) – the Walkinshaw Group now comprises four entities: the Walkinshaw Automotive Group (design, engineering and manufacturing), Walkinshaw Performance (aftermarket components), Walkinshaw Sports (brand management and distribution) and Walkinshaw Andretti United.
The latter is the group’s Supercars team which switched from General Motors to Ford in 2023, and will homologate the Toyota Supra and field two cars for the Japanese giant in 2026.
“We’ve come a long way from when we were simply doing HSV for Holden. I’d say we’re one of the best – if not the best – design, engineering and manufacturing businesses for niche automotive programs in the world,” said Mr Walkinshaw.
“Now we’re working with multiple different brands, doing uplift work and also doing left- to right-hand drive conversions for most of the largest automotive manufacturers on the planet.”
HSV GTSR W1
They may sound like bold claims, particularly for people who only remember hotrod Holden Commodores, but the Walkinshaw business is vastly bigger and more diverse in 2024.
Mr Walkinshaw says the company has 1500 employees including 200 engineers, is producing more than 13,000 vehicles annually, and has partnered with General Motors, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, RAM, Toyota and Volkswagen.
“We’ve obviously grown a lot from when we were doing Holden Special Vehicles. We had around 300 employees and we’ve grown to around 1500. So huge growth here,” Mr Walkinshaw said.
“And we’ve gone from producing 2500 units a year to over 13,000.
“That’s quite special, to have grown a car company in Australia when all the other manufacturers have been closing their doors.”
Apart from being the official Australian remanufacturer of the Chevrolet Silverado and Silverado HD, GMC Yukon, Toyota Tundra and Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 – and the design and engineering team behind the upcoming Isuzu D-Max Blade and perhaps replacements for the Mitsubishi Triton Xtreme and Volkswagen Amarok W-Series models, Walkinshaw is also a joint owner of New Age Caravans.
Other brands will join the company, which was founded by his father, the late Tom Walkinshaw, but Ryan Walkinshaw is not about to provide any unnecessary detail.
“When those programs are announced, we’ll be announcing them,” he said.
He also refuses to discuss the company’s turnover, or the investment in a vast new manufacturing site in Dandenong that will bring everything under one roof instead of the 10 buildings currently in use around Melbourne.
“It’s a lot. It’s a scary number, but it makes sense financially,” he says of the new site.
So, is it into the billions?
“No, thankfully. It’s naturally going to be a little bit daunting, because there is always uncertainty on what the future looks like. But we have confidence in what we are and we’ve got long-term programs with our customers.”
Although Walkinshaw is contracted by a range of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for a range of similar programs, including right-hand drive conversions and vehicle upgrade packages, each one is operated from an individual silo.
“We don’t have any cross-contamination between engineers. We are very, very strict on how we manage our customers IP [Intellectual Property],” said Mr Walkinshaw.
“What we’re already seeing is a lot of our customers are coming up with new programs in EV and hydrogen that we haven’t done previously, and we’re working on those sorts of things.
“For us, you’re going to be working on products that have been developed by our customers. The motor manufacturers are never going to run out of products.
“We’ll just be working on different products in the future than we work on today.”
One thing that will not change, according to Mr Walkinshaw, is the company’s base in Australia.
“We feel that manufacturing in Australia is important to us, and it’s a commitment to Australia that we’re hanging around for the long term,” he said.
“It’s a great story in Australian manufacturing, and it shows the capability and talent we have in this country.”
So, what’s next?
“We’re not as big as we want to be. Hopefully we’ll be a lot bigger in future,” said Mr Walkinshaw.
“One of great things about our business at the moment is we used to go around trying to search for work, and now have manufacturers knocking on our door regularly asking to do work with us.”
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