Last local Commodore but name will live on

The latest Commodore will be the last one built in Australia, but Holden says the iconic name will live on.

The VFII was unveiled in Port Melbourne in front of a collection of cars stretching back to the first Commodore built in 1978.

"It's certainly end of an era of the locally made product, but the Commodore name will live on once we get past the end of 2017," Holden managing director Mark Bernhard told reporters on Sunday.

Holden will shut down the Port Melbourne engine factory in 2016 and the Adelaide vehicle factory in 2017 in what Mr Bernhard said would be a "very sad" time for the industry.

But General Motors has reversed a decision to send more than 100 powertrain engineering and development jobs overseas, announcing on Saturday night the jobs will stay in Australia.

"We should be really proud of that. The reason we've been able to retain those people is because of the talent of the team that's based here," Mr Bernhard said.

One of Holden's new innovations is a bi-modal exhaust, which gives a V8 Commodore a quiet mode and a loud mode.

"We can switch a switch inside the car (and) we can turn it from something very refined to a little bit of V8 supercar," chief vehicle engineer Andrew Holmes said.

The VFII also has a mechanical noise enhancer that pipes "pleasing" engine noise into the cabin.

Mr Bernhard said the 6.2-litre Chevrolet LS3 engine in all V8 models made the VFII the most powerful Commodore yet.

"The car is fully made here in Australia, by Australians, for Australians," he said.

Mr Holmes said the new engine also met new environment-friendly emissions requirements.

"It's making less tail pipe emissions than the car that came before, even though it's making more power," he said.

Mr Bernhard said Holden would keep almost 1000 staff in Australia beyond 2017, including more than 300 design and engineering staff.

"(That) will allow us to have cars tuned specifically for Australians," he said.

The next generation of Commodores will be made overseas, but Mr Bernhard said the decision on where had not been announced.

THE HOLDEN COMMODORE VFII

- 6.2-litre LS3 Chevrolet engine

- 304kW of power

- 570Nm of torque

- 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds

- On sale in October

- 550 new parts

- Bi-modal exhaust

- Mechanical noise enhancer

Source: Holden