Akio Toyoda heartbroken

Akio Toyoda, the president and chief executive officer of Toyota Motor Corporation, is “heartbroken” to have to announce the end of manufacturing in Australia in 2017, but says the automotive landscape there left little choice. While an intra-company review into the viability of producing a next-generation Camry at Toyota’s Altona factory in 2018 was concluded two weeks ago, the decision to exit production was made on Monday during a joint board meeting in Japan and Melbourne. The decision means the face-lifted Camry and Aurion due in 2015 – the result of an AU$123 million co-investment between the marque and federal and state governments – will be the final cars produced across the Tasman in volume. About 2,500 workers at Altona will be out of work, while operations at the Toyota Technical Centre in Melbourne will be wound back. Toyota refused to pin its decision on any one factor, instead highlighting unfavourable exchange rates, which hurt Camry exports to the Middle East, high labour costs and local market fragmentation. Toyoda declined to comment on if the Abbott government’s position on cutting car-industry funding was decisive, and whether its decision would have been different if the political climate was different. “I won’t be able to respond to hypothesis or ‘if’ questions,” he says. “But I would like to say we’re grateful for the support the government has provided to us. This decision wasn’t based on a single factor but various factors. “Even though we’ve made this decision, we maintained a strong will to maintain production in Australia and our people made great efforts in improving the competitiveness of products.” Toyota Australian was two years into a five-year plan to cut costs of vehicle production at Altona and last year said it had to trim $3,800 from the cost of every car it made there. Yasuda says: “There are many factors beyond our control, which impacted the mid and long-term future. Being the sole manufacturer in this country gave us a big challenge to make auto manufacturing here viable.” Australia was the first place to build Toyotas outside of Japan. “We believed we should do what we could to keep producing cars here,” adds Toyoda. “We started production in 1963. Australia and Toyota have built cars together for 50 years – two-thirds of Toyota’s 75-year history. “The road wasn’t always smooth. But our people used their skills, knowledge and experience, and took pride in their work and produced quality cars. Toyota’s commitment to continue providing great cars and services to Australian people will not change.”