Pontiac G8 may live on as police squad car

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson has confirmed that the Holden-sourced G8 will die out along with its adopted Pontiac brand at the end of 2010, but the sporty sedan may live on in the U.S. at the hands of local police squads around the country. The G8 is essentially a rebadged Holden Commodore sedan and was recently spotted outside the Aussie division’s headquarters in Port Melbourne, Victoria, draped in full Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) livery.

This suggests that Holden is working on a separate U.S. export program for the G8 as a police squad car. GoAuto is reporting that up to 40,000 Commodores could be shipped to the U.S. annually for police service, where the cars would be badged as Chevrolets. If the program proves successful, there is a chance that the cars will also be exported to Canada, the UK and the Middle East.

The car spotted outside Holden’s headquarters is actually a LAPD prototype model produced by the National Safety Agency (NSA) in Australia. It was co-developed with the LAPD and has since been doing the rounds at various international police presentations.

The NSA is currently in talks with nine separate U.S. law enforcement jurisdictions, which together represent a fleet of up to 40,000 vehicles a year. Most are interested in finding a suitable replacement for the aging Crown Victoria, which Ford builds in a run of 60,000 units per year for various jurisdictions. Later this year, NSA will send two of the prototypes to the U.S. for testing but things are still in the early stages and any deal could still be years away.