Ford Australia local production ends as rising value of Australian dollar against other currencies and increased manufacturing costs blamed
Ford ended local production in Australian after ninety one years sticking by the announcement made back in 2013 as the manufacturing works at its last remaining facility in Broadmeadows in Victoria ceased. It also marks goodbye to the Falcon model that was build and deliveries down under for over five decades.
The axing of local production doesn’t mean that the American auto conglomerate is leaving the country entirely as about 1.500 employees will continue to be employed in the design as well as engineering divisions of Ford. The first-ever Ford model built on Australian soil was the famous Model T which was constructed initially at the Geelong base in July 1925.
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Within the next five years, Ford extended its operations to big cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide alongside Fremantle as new production factories were built. Ford and Holden’s rivalry in commercial vehicle sales as well as motorsport department was for the world to see as the Falcon and Commodore sedans battled out head-on-head over the decades.
Before the arrival of Holden, Ford commenced local assembly at the newly born Broadmeadows plant in 1959, about 43,56,628 cars were rolled out ever since. The final Ford manufactured in Australia was the Falcon XR6 painted in bright blue colour.
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Despite car derived pickup trucks left the US market back in the 1980s, they continued to be an integral part of the Australian motoring heritage. The final example of the Blue Oval’s Falcon-based ute came out in August marking the end of an era for the model that was in production since February 1961. The white XR6 Ute has been kept by the manufacturer’s local arm.
Back in 2013, Ford Australia said the company could not continue to build cars after reporting a loss of $141 million and more than $600 million over the previous five years. The ending of local production was strongly blamed on the rising value of Australian dollar against other currencies and increased manufacturing costs.