iMotiv takes Aussie engineering knowhow global

WHEN General Motors Holden pulled out of Australia in 2020, we lost not only an automotive identity stretching back to the very formative years of the car as we know it, but an enviable wealth of knowledge and expertise curated over many decades.

Brilliant engineers, designers, and technicians with vastly wide-ranging skills – most formed in the context of the unique Australian market – were left without an industry in which to prosper; their accumulated knowhow seemingly left to atrophy.

Fortunately, not all those great and plentiful gifts were lost.

Shortly after Holden’s demise, a team of 27 ex-GMH engineers moved to form the Aftersales Engineering and Quality team at Vietnamese automotive manufacturer VinFast. It was here they learnt not only the degree of engineering strength they had to offer, but also the deficiencies in vehicle development from which they could capitalise.

“When Holden started to wind down, all of us were on different paths, and there were some of us that took the opportunity the VinFast engineering centre offered, knowing they needed an aftersales engineering team,” former Holden engineer and iMotiv managing director Peter Whitlock told GoAuto.

“The ability to get everything ready to service and repair well ahead of the car being produced was a skill we well understood – and was one that VinFast knew it needed.”

When VinFast decided it would pull up stumps in 2022 for the Australian outfit, moving its aftersales engineering and quality functions back to Vietnam, the group seized upon the opportunity to “go it alone”.

Five of the lead engineers – Peter Whitlock, Mark Barbaro, Mark Ceveri, Leon Wensley, and Brett Harris – formed iMotiv.

iMotiv quickly garnered significant local and international attention. As the team hit its stride, it was able to engage with clients including resources companies, and start-up OEMs.

Appreciating the breadth of services the iMotiv team could offer, overseas start-up organisations sought out the team’s services in aftersales engineering and quality services.

iMotiv then set about delivering upfront engineering services that will ensure vehicle serviceability in the field.

Maintenance manuals, diagnostic equipment, and programming tools were all part of the picture, as were the fundamentals of ensuring the vehicle had been designed with maintenance in mind from the get-go.

“The relationship we have formed with our global partners is very close. We have quickly become much more than a service provider to them. They are very receptive to our experience and logical way of thinking, especially from an engineering standpoint,” said iMotiv quality director Leon Wensley.

“The way in which we each have the flexibility to work outside of our own roles, to provide knowledge across a cross-section of projects, means we are better equipped to pull in all the information that is needed and set strategies in place that actually work – they genuinely admire that.”

The iMotiv team ensures that its clients are ready to enter the market fully formed, providing vehicles that are engineered to perform not only in the hands of the customer, but also in the service department.

“Broad-based thinking is a real benefit,” added iMotiv customer experience and technical director Mark Barbaro.

“We have seen other ESPs (engineering service providers) come in who want to focus solely on their core task. From our background at Holden, where we worked across many different centres at the same time, we find that we can offer a lot more benefit.

“It has also provided us with the ability to challenge things that we know from experience will not work, and I think our clients see that as a strength – they know we are capable of taking on tasks that are outside our direct scope.”

An ability to think laterally is one the iMotiv team offers in spades. Across its 27 staff it boasts experience in a multitude of engineering disciplines including not only aftersales and quality, but also design, development and validation.

The range of skills contained in the business is pertinent not only to the development of processes which facilitate more traditional business models – such as service diagnostics and programming, customer literature, technical and training information, parts and accessories, and so on – but also in nascent processes and technologies.

Animation and visualisation of complex systems, electric vehicle charging and high-voltage battery monitoring, issue identification, containment and solutions, policy and procedure development, and even cost and warranty accrual forecasting are all part of the iMotiv knowledge set.

 “Our grounding at Holden was fantastic, because you had to be across a lot of elements of the business,” reiterated Mr Whitlock.

“As an engineer, you ‘owned’ a lot of the vehicle within your department, and you also had to integrate very well because you were relatively small in relation to other manufacturers – I think it made us very efficient.

“When we were working for General Motors, quite a lot of us would get comments from our colleagues in the United States that, as individuals, they could not believe the depth and breadth of our knowledge.

“That is something that has very much become of benefit now we’re out on our own.”

It is a mindset iMotiv technical engineering director Mark Ceveri hopes will not only serve to help the business prosper, but one that can be of benefit to the next generation of engineers as they enter the electrified era.

“There will be a terrific calling for this kind of knowledge as we move into the electrified era, and we don’t want to lose all of this expertise,” he said, acknowledging that iMotiv’s Melbourne homebase is not an impediment to its growth.

“The world is so well connected now. We shouldn’t discourage young engineers from entering the automotive space simply because we don’t build cars here.”

Mr Ceveri said that in providing training for iMotiv clients, the team has learnt the importance of fostering new talent, and in passing on the learnings of “a bunch of old blokes” to the next generation.

“One of the elements we are providing our clients is training – arming their team with as much knowledge as possible,” he enthused.

“We are big believers that if there is a particular skill set or training course we can offer to an RTO (Registered Training Organisation) here, for example, then that is something we would like to do.

“We also want to focus on bringing in some younger talent that we can nurture and develop. We see that as the lifeblood of this business moving forward.”

It impresses that iMotiv can rise from the ashes of Australia’s once-proud automotive industry to offer the world a taste of what many of us always knew was possible.

Importantly, the irreplaceable knowledge cultivated by the small and passionate team at Holden has a chance to leave its legacy in the electric age – and in future Australians who are as dedicated to their profession as the iMotiv team.