Toyota on becoming import only

The demise of Australian vehicle production has meant that Toyota has transformed into an import-only brand, following in the footsteps of former manufacturers Holden and Ford Australia. The introduction of lowering import tariffs meant the arrival of cheaper imported cars to Australia making it difficult for locally made vehicles to compete on price. Export opportunities disappeared as neighbouring developing countries built up car industries with labour and energy costs that were a fraction of those in Australia. However it’s almost been one year since Ford closed the doors on its manufacturing program and the company’s sales have remained relatively steady at 60,465 year-to-date, down from 61,406. Therefore it’s no surprise that Toyota Australia sales and marketing chief Sean Hanley said the company does not expect to see any negative impact on overall sales in the year ahead. “We see our business growing in the future, we’re planning to grow. We’ll do that by two factors: one, we’ll have some new product coming in the next three years. Not only that, we have the biggest car parc in the country right now of sold cars.” For now, clearly, Toyota has little to fear. The brand netted 17,377 sales in September alone, up 4 per cent against an overall flat market.