When Holden pulled the covers off the VE Commodore on July 16, 2006, it wasn’t simply unveiling another new model. It was revealing the most ambitious car ever designed and engineered in Australia – a project so costly and comprehensive it became known as the “Billion Dollar Baby”.

Two decades later, the VE remains one of the defining achievements of Australia’s automotive industry. It was the first Commodore developed from a clean sheet of paper rather than adapted from an Opel platform, giving Holden’s engineers and designers the opportunity to create a car specifically for Australian roads and buyers.

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The project began in the late 1990s, with Holden setting itself an audacious benchmark. Rather than simply matching Ford, the company wanted the new Commodore to rival premium European sports sedans from BMW and Audi for ride, handling and refinement, while remaining affordable for mainstream buyers.

Achieving that vision came at a price. Development reportedly exceeded $1 billion, dwarfing any previous Holden program and requiring a major upgrade to the Elizabeth production plant. It was the largest automotive engineering project Australia had ever undertaken.

The timing, however, could hardly have been more challenging. Fuel prices were climbing rapidly, sales of large sedans were falling and many questioned whether Australia still wanted a locally built rear-wheel-drive family car. The VE entered the market amid growing uncertainty about the future of big cars.

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Yet the Commodore quickly justified Holden’s faith. Longer, wider and stiffer than its predecessor, it delivered a significant leap in dynamics, refinement and safety. A new chassis, improved suspension, fresh styling and an extensively redesigned interior transformed expectations of what an Australian-built sedan could be.

Wheels magazine crowned the VE its 2006 Car of the Year, praising it as the finest sedan ever designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia. We even did a whole mag about the car. The architecture would also underpin the WM Statesman and Caprice, Sportwagon, Ute and a range of successful export programs.

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Today, with Holden consigned to history, the VE stands as more than just another Commodore. It represents the last great roll of the dice for Australia’s automotive engineering industry – proof that local designers and engineers could produce a world-class car when given the opportunity. Twenty years on, the Billion Dollar Baby remains one of Australia’s greatest automotive success stories.