The company this week announced it would attempt to slash wages at its Australian manufacturing plants.

On Wednesday, managing director Mike Devereux also flagged that the company's future in the country was not certain if government funding was not locked in over a long period.

Coalition industry spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella, who has been in discussions with Mr Devereux, said if Tony Abbott won the federal election, she was confident the nation's automotive industry would survive.

The Gillard government has a scheme giving money to the nation's car makers, which will see $1.5 billion paid out between 2011 and 2015, and a further $1 billion over the following five years.

The Coalition will cut the first round by $500 million, down to $1 billion.

But it has also pledged to leave the second round of funding in place - while simultaneously promising a Productivity Commission review into car manufacturing, causing doubts within the car industry over the money.

Ms Mirabella said Labor's plans to save the car industry had not worked. ''Ford has gone under their watch, when they've given more and more money to the car industry,'' she said.

She said the Coalition wanted to see the car industry survive: ''We think there can be a viable auto sector, but there needs to be a change in funding guidelines to look at long-term viability of the industry.''

And she said that ''no car company has said to me they are going to leave the country because we have reduced the fund by $500 million''.

Holden has pledged, on the back of a funding pledge from federal and state governments last year, to spend $1 billion at its Adelaide production plant.

But Holden's Mr Devereux said this spending was not certain. ''Some people think that we have already been given money to do that investment but that is a prospective investment that we have not made,'' he told ABC Radio.

Mr Devereux said the long lead times of the auto industry meant Holden needed certainty for the next decade now on government funding.

The company is poised to begin spending by the end of this year on its new facility in Adelaide to help manufacture new-model Cruze and Commodore vehicles, and wants guaranteed funding until around 2022 before it begins spending the money.

Other car industry figures said that, if Holden believed there was a risk to funding from the federal government, the company would simply walk away from production in Australia and import vehicles, because it would be more profitable.

Dave Smith, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's vehicles division, said if a Coalition government was elected, it would need to provide money to car makers or see them depart.

''If they can't lock in the required government funding from a Coalition government, then they will leave Australia.''

Industry Minister Greg Combet told Parliament that the Coalition's planned funding cuts would see Holden cease manufacturing in Australia.

''That puts thousands of peoples' jobs at risk under the Coalition's policy,'' he said. ''Over $1 billion of investment by General Motors in their Australian operation has been put at risk because of that Coalition policy.''