For a country as obsessed with cars and hot rods as Australia is, it seems unfathomable that no new ones will be made there when 2017 rolls around, but that is the reality the country faces now that Toyota has announced that they will cease production there in three years. Ford and Holden announced that they’d be ending things in 2016 and 2017 respectively already and as we have been reporting, that left Toyota as the last company standing and now they have taken the step everyone expected them to take. Once the last Toyota and Holden plants are wound down, the auto industry in Australia will be officially dead and let us assure you that we take NO pride in reporting that.
Somewhere between 40-50,000 Australians are directly tied into the auto industry in the country. That includes factory workers and those working in the supply chain. What it does not include are the thousands of people who own or work at businesses around the factories that produce the cars and parts and depend on those workers for their income. There is lots of finger pointing going on in Australia right now between government officials who are blaming each other for the departure of these companies and the industry. The government has sunk some 30-billion dollars into floating the auto industry over the last 10 years and the ruling officials effectively decided that enough was enough. With the subsidies the companies decided that they could produce off shore and import cheaper than they could do it on Aussie soil.
While Toyota does not produce any iconic Australian models like the Falcon or Commodore, their departure still hurts if only for what it ultimately means. Toyota said this in a statement, ““The decision was not based on any single factor. The market and economic factors contributing to the decision include the unfavourable Australian dollar that makes exports unviable, high costs of manufacturing and low economies of scale for our vehicle production and local supplier base. Together with one of the most open and fragmented automotive markets in the world and increased competitiveness due to current and future free trade agreements, it is not viable to continue building cars in Australia.’’
Toyota has been manufacturing cars in Australia for 50 years.
It’s sad to hear this news as the 50,000 plus loss of jobs there means far more than it would here in the US. The “bottom line” has always been the reason cited by big business, aka the stockholder. The funny thing however is who are the stockholders? They are often the very people that work in those factories.
In 1913, Henry Ford nearly doubled his workers daily pay. ” How can he do this” ” It will ruin the industry” was the cry. The result is well known. Ford knew how his workers income would be as important to him as it would to them.
The socialist / environmentalist mentality has nearly destroyed the US auto industry so I can’t help but wonder if Australia has also been suffering from decades of bleeding hearts telling others how they must operate. I fear the 21st century will see the decay of most of the great countries of the 20th century due to the declining quality of their citizens.
One question: When Australia’s auto industry circles the drain, does it go clockwise or counterclockwise ?
I guarantee that government meddling is what has done in the Aussie auto business. People of a certain political bent can’t keep their slimy hands off anything, they have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. Just wait and see what Obama’s draconian increase in CAFE do to our domestic industry…
*will do*… damn fat fingers 😀
I feel as if someone just kicked my dog. As an American who’s been to Australia it really makes me sad to hear this. There was a thread a while back where you asked if you had a billion dollars to bring back a car company, what would it be? I officially retract my previous answer and replace it with this. I’m taking my billion and going to Australia to build a plant that makes all sorts of Aussie OEM badassery. Oh, as part of the package, the Commodore, Commodore Ute, and the Falcon are coming to America.