Toyota has officially closed its local manufacturing operations in Australia – the shuttering of Toyota Australia’s production plant in Altona, Victoria, from today following the last Camry rollout brings an end to 54 years of building vehicles in the country.
The decision to end local manufacturing was announced in 2014, with high costs of manufacturing and low economies of scale being among the number of reasons cited for the move. Towards the end of its life, the plant assembled Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion models as well as a line of four-cylinder engines.
With the cessation of manufacturing and consolidation has seen the employee count being trimmed from 3,900 personnel to approximately 1,300. The transition to a national sales and distribution company will also transfer all corporate functions from Sydney to Melbourne, effective January 1, 2018.
Most of the Altona manufacturing site will be retained for new and relocated functions. The location will see the development of a Centre of Excellence and also house Toyota Australia’s expanded design and engineering team, which is 150 strong.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Proof that car making or car assembling is not feasible for low population market & high wages country. R&D will sustain for sometime but not forever. Still the main HQ elsewhere will design almost all component & study any safety issue related to it. In the end, it will just be car consumer country only. Sad day for Australia and billions more wasted.
54 years bro.
54 years. it was feasible for 5 decades. it was not a wrong decision. Mitsubishi and Nissan had done the same (closing assembly plants worldwide)
Ini semua salah… oh wai
So many sad faces wondering why did Aussie scrapped their plotek and NAP system, and now how to feed their 12,000 workers.
This is a sad time in history for Australian car enthusiasts. The back-to-back closure of the big three plants (Holden, Ford and Toyota) effectively signal the end of Australian car manufacturing. However, it will not be the end of Australia’s car industry, as Australia has sizeable R&D operations and a lot of high-skill labour. In that respect, Australia has succeeded.
Not many Malaysians realise that Australian companies helped build our automotive industry once upon a time. The Wearne Brothers is one such example. Even as early as the 1910s, the Wearne Brothers had great success with the Ford franchise in Malaya and Singapore. Their success led to the construction of the first car assembly plant in Southeast Asia in 1926, namely the Ford Malaya plant (in Singapore).
The Wearne Brothers later built a second plant Shah Alam, called Associated Motor Industries (Malaysia), which assembled Ford and other American/Australian/European cars. The Shah Alam plant was sold to Ford in 1979. Later, Sime Darby would take control of the Ford franchise in Malaysia (and subsequently ruin it, it must be said).
The Wearne Brothers’ legacy still lives on in Malaysia through the aftersales industry. Wearnes has a few BMW dealerships (run by Wearnes Autohaus) as well as VW dealerships (run by Wearnes Automotive) in Malaysia. They also hold the franchise rights to many other car companies in other ASEAN countries.
Apart from Wearnes, there were several other Australian investments in 1960s Malaysia. Some Holden cars were assembled in Malaysia, at the Capital Motor Assembly (Johor) and Associated Motor Industries (Shah Alam) plants. Some Ford Australia cars were also assembled here. But they didn’t catch on in the local market for many reasons. The last true Australian car to be officially sold in Malaysia was the Chevrolet Lumina in the early 2000s. It was a rebadged Holden Commodore (VY/VZ generation), and it had a massive 3.8 litre engine !
The most successful Australian-designed car in Malaysia, I suspect, is the 2007-2012 Toyota Camry (XV40). This generation of Camry was based on the Toyota Aurion (XV40) developed by Toyota Australia. The 2012-2017 XV50 Camry for Malaysia is also based on the equivalent XV50 Aurion. However, the upcoming 2018 XV70 Camry for Malaysia will (according to news reports) revert back to the U.S./ Japanese market Camry. On a side note, UMW had imported Camry engines from Toyota Australia. But the CKD packs are imported from Toyota Thailand.
There is also Australia’s car safety agency ANCAP, which back in 2013, gave the Proton Prevé 5-stars. It kickstarted Proton’s safety USP, and today, we have safer cars on our roads. Proton’s emphasis on safety also sparked a ‘domino affect’, raising public awareness on car safety. Today, more and more Malaysians understand and demand better safety features from new cars. If ANCAP didn’t exist, I daresay, this ‘safety movement’ would have been delayed several years. ANCAP also helps out ASEAN NCAP, and both agencies share crash data with one another.
I could probably share more Australian contributions to our auto industry, but this comment is already too long, so I’ll save it for another day. I thought it would be nice to highlight some of the stuff Australian car companies did for us, which may have been forgotten or gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Perhaps, this comment could serve as a small tribute, or an expression of gratitude to the most underrated car manufacturers in the world, the Aussies.
Very happy too see jepunis to kolok shop? Then I suggest them to open kedai kopi instead there.
This is a good message to UMW. Toyota Japan might just close shop here in Malaysia and open in Thailand. Cheaper labour and more productive.
Remember, Mitsubishi in Thailand produces 320,000 per annum with just 6000 workers.
Proton for example, produces 60,000 cars with 12,000 workers.
Logically all car companies will stop CKD in Malaysia and move to Thailand eventually
More like proton produce 12k cars with 60k workers
When did P1 had 60k workers?
This is a good message to UMW. Toyota Japan might just close shop here in Malaysia and open in Thailand. Cheaper labour and more productive.
Remember, Mitsubishi in Thailand produces 320,000 per annum with just 6000 workers.
Proton for example, produces 60,000 cars with 12,000 workers.
Logically all car companies will stop CKD in Malaysia and move to Thailand eventually
Try harder, too much free time, cybertroopers trying so hard to fitnah.
Fitnah tu dosa tau?
Tau dosa, kenape buat jugak?
Australia can no problem one..if Malaysia people will kondem kaw kaw…
This is a good message to UMW. Toyota Japan might just close shop here in Malaysia and open in Thailand. Cheaper labour and more productive.
Remember, Mitsubishi in Thailand produces 320,000 per annum with just 6000 workers.
Proton for example, produces 60,000 cars with 12,000 workers.
Logically all car companies will stop CKD in Malaysia and move to Thailand eventually
Agreed. Better go to tomyam. We dun need low skill level monkey wrench jobs done by foreigners. Adds no value to develop MY.
So when Malaysia turn?