Toyota Australia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toyota Motor Corporation Australia

logo
legal form branch
founding 1958
Seat Port Melbourne (Victoria), AustraliaAustraliaAustralia 
Branch Automobile manufacturer
Website www.toyota.com.au

Toyota Motor Corporation Australia (TMCA) or Toyota Australia is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan . TMCA sells products for Toyota and organizes motor sports, advertising and business in Australia . TMCA is also responsible for Lexus vehicles in Australia.

history

Toyota's operations in Australia began in 1958 when Thiess Toyota imported Land Cruisers for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme . In 1963, the assembly of Toyota vehicles started at Australian Motor Industries (AMI) in Port Melbourne (Victoria) . At that time only the tiara was mounted. Kennath Hougham was among the leading men in establishing Toyota in Australia .

Between 1963 and 1966, Australia was Toyota's main overseas market.

In 1972, Toyota acquired the British Leyland Corporation's shares in AMI and announced plans to invest A $ 27 million in an engine and transmission plant. Toyota's withdrawal from South Korea ( Shinjin Motors ) and Taiwan was also decisive for the commitment .

In addition, in 1974 AMI opened a component plant that was built together with Nippondenso .

The first export vehicle built by AMI was a Toyota Corona station wagon, which was delivered to New Zealand (where Toyota had other assembly operations with Toyota New Zealand ).

The one millionth Australian Toyota was born in 1992.

In 1994, the entire production relocated from Port Melbourne to Altona. The last car made in Port Melbourne was a Camry and the first car built in Altona was a Corolla . In Port Melbourne some subordinate functions of the TMCA were retained.

In 2004, the two millionth Toyota was built in Australia.

In 2005 the ten millionth Camry worldwide was built in the TMCA plant in Altona.

The last manufacturing departments were withdrawn from Port Melbourne in May 2006 and relocated to Altona. That same month it was 500,000. Export vehicle, a Camry, delivered to New Zealand.

Over the years many Toyota models have been built by TMCA in Port Melbourne or Altona, e.g. B. the Tiara, the Corona, the Crown , the Corolla, the Camry, the Corolla Conquest, the Tazz and the Avalon . The Land Cruiser, however, was never made in Australia.

The Camry has also been built in Altona since 2006. The Avalon has been discontinued and built on the same Aurion assembly line that has many parts in common with the Camry. TMCA has also expressed interest in building the Kluger  4WD in Altona.

The TMCA has been building the Camry Hybrid since 2010 after securing a $ 35 million grant from the Australian government. The first Australian Camry Hybrid was delivered on December 11, 2009 and was driven by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd .

On October 3, 2017, the last vehicle produced in Altona, again a Camry, rolled off the assembly line; Toyota no longer operates a production facility in Australia. A total of 3,451,115 vehicles were produced between 1963 and 2017, around two thirds of which were made by the Camry.

TMCA sales figures

Toyota Motor Corporation Australia currently has the largest share of Australia's new car market. In the 2003-2004 sales period, this top position was taken over by Holden .

TMCA total sales

  • 2003-2004: 186.370
  • 2004-2005: 201.737
  • 2005-2006: 202.817
  • 2006-2007: 213,847 (currently the highest new car sales in the Australian auto industry)

In the 2006-2007 sales period, Toyota Australia became the first automobile manufacturer since 1978 to top the list of total new vehicle sales, passenger car sales, and commercial vehicle sales in the same sales period.

Model range

Toyota Aurion from the Altona plant

TMCA offers a wide range of vehicles for Australian private individuals and fleet operators.

Toyota Kluger from Japan

Passenger cars

SUV

commercial vehicles

Motorsport

TMCA is currently supporting motorsport in the form of a Corolla for the Australian Rally, which was tuned by Toyota Racing Development (TRD).

TRD was also the tuning division of TMCA, which made high-performance versions of normal Toyota vehicles. It was founded in 2007 and is operated by 'Prodrive'. It competes with the corresponding departments of Ford ( FPV ) and Holden ( HSV ). The first model in this division was a TRD Aurion, a supercharged version of the normal Aurion. The TRD Hilux, a supercharged version of the Hilux Ute , appeared in the second quarter of 2008. In December 2008, however, TRD was closed as a result of a change in strategy. The production of the models TRD Aurion and TRD Hilux was stopped on March 31, 2009; existing vehicles were sold until mid-2009.

Sponsorship

TMCA currently sponsors the Australian Football League (AFL). The first sponsorship deal was signed for the 2004-2006 seasons. On July 16, 2006 this contract was extended by two years.

literature

Web links

Commons : Toyota Motor Corporation Australia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Tsokhas, Kosmas: "Social Capital, Interdependence and Japanese multi-nationals", in: Journal of Contemporary Asia 11.4 (1981), pp 449-486.
  2. ^ A b Charles Bulmer (Ed.): Motorweek: Toyota and Datsun to Build Australian Cars . The Motor, December 30, 1972, p. 53.
  3. ↑ James V. Martin Jr .: Problems of Australian-Japanese Relations . In: Asian Affairs . tape 3 , no. 4 , 1976, p. 217-246 , JSTOR : 30171408 (English).
  4. ↑ Toyota Wins $ 35m Subsidy for Altona-built Hybrid. In: The Sydney Morning Herald, June 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ Toyota closes the last plant in Australia. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , October 3, 2017.
  6. ↑ Car manufacturer Toyota closes the last plant in Australia. In: Die Presse , October 3, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Terribly sad day": Toyota closes its last plant in Australia after half a century. In: Automobilwoche, October 4, 2017.
  8. ^ Toyota closes manufacturing operations. In: toyota.com.au. January 1, 2018, accessed February 12, 2018 .