Toyota ends production in Australia at its Altona plant near Melbourne after 54 years; will be converted to a training and product development unit
Toyota is the latest manufacturer to have officially ended its production in Australia after being present in making cars for well over five decades. It has shut down its Altona plant near the city of Melbourne. The Japanese manufacturer had already announced that it would be closing its manufacturing facility and it followed the production exit of Ford back in October last year.
By October 20, General Motors’ local division, Holden, will be putting a lid and closing its shop. The American automotive giant has been enduring tough times in sales globally and it resulted in Chevrolet quitting India by the end of this year. GM’s Halol plant is bought by Chinese automaker SAIC for the entry of British marque MG Motors.
A few days ago, it announced its domestic plans, as the first MG product will be rolled out in 2019 with an annual production target of 80,000 units being planned at an initial investment of over Rs. 2,000 crore. The automobile manufacturing in Australia has been facing doldrums of late as companies constantly reported lack of profits.
Toyota Motor Corporation Australia will be refurbishing the Altona plant as a training and product development unit while the sales and marketing functions will be shifted from Sydney to its HQ in Melbourne. Toyota began its production in Australia way back in April 1963 with the Tiara at Port Melbourne plant.
Three decades later, the Altona plant commenced its operations to manufacture the Corolla which is the world’s most sold sedan in automobile history. In March 1995, the plant started building Camry and the Aurion sedan in October 2006.
With the latter’s production coming to an end in August this year, the final Camry Hybrid was sent off the assembly lines late September. In total, Toyota has produced 3,451,115 vehicles in Australia and the closure of its plant leaves Holden as the only brand to have local manufacturing unit in the country but only for another ten days.