Toyota Australia is an Australian subsidiary of the Japanese car manufacturer

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. It markets Toyota products and manages motorsport, advertising and business operations for Toyota in Australia. It is also responsible for Lexus vehicles in Australia. Toyota Australia is based in Port Melbourne, with offices in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Townsville and Darwin. Toyota Australia manufactured cars in Australia from 1963 until 2017.

History

Toyota Australia commenced operations in 1959, when

Toyota Land Cruiser The (also sometimes spelled as LandCruiser) is a series of four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is Toyota's longest running series of models. , the sales of the Land Cruiser totalled more than ...

s were imported by Thiess Toyota, a 60/40 joint venture between Thiess and Toyota, for the Snowy Mountains Scheme. By 1963, assembly of Toyota vehicles in Australia by Australian Motor Industries (AMI) had begun, taking place at the production plant in Port Melbourne. The production line of Toyota vehicles in 1963 was devoted to the Toyota Tiara. In 1972 Toyota bought out

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

's interest in AMI and announced plans to spend $127 million on an engine and gearbox plant. A production plant in Altona, was established and began the production of engines in 1978, following the progressive growth of AMI. In 1980, Toyota exercised an option to buy Thiess' share of Thiess Toyota. After Toyota's products came in for heavy criticism regarding their handling, a handling package developed specifically for the Australian market was introduced in 1981. The first AMI exported car was a Toyota Corona wagon in 1986 headed for New Zealand. In 1987, Toyota Australia and

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

formed United Australian Automobile Industries in response to the Button car plan. This resulted in Toyota Australia building

Holden Apollo The Holden Apollo is a compact and later mid-size car that was distributed from 1989 to 1997 in Australia by Holden. As a successor to the GM-engineered Holden Camira, the Apollo was a rebadged version of the Toyota Camry, also sold in Austral ...

and

Holden Nova The Holden Nova is a compact car that was produced by the Holden-Toyota alliance, known as United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI) in Australia between August 1989 and 1996. The alliance, and therefore the car, was a result of the Button ...

s at Altona that were badge engineered Camrys and Corollas. In exchange Holden built Toyota Lexcen which was a rebadged Commodore. The one-millionth locally built Toyota was produced in 1992. In 1994, all vehicle manufacturing operations were moved from Port Melbourne to Altona. The last vehicle produced at the Port Melbourne plant was a Toyota Camry and the first vehicle produced at the Altona plant a

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has been one of the best-selling cars in ...

. Port Melbourne continued performing minor operations. The two-millionth locally built Toyota was produced in 2004. In 2005, the ten-millionth worldwide Camry was built at Altona. The complete closure and end of all Toyota production operations at the Port Melbourne plant took place in May 2006. All manufacturing was shifted to Altona. The milestone of the 500,000th Toyota Australia vehicle export also occurred in May 2006. The vehicle was a Toyota Camry, headed for New Zealand. Many Toyota vehicles have been built at either Altona or Port Melbourne, including the Tiara, Corona, Crown, Corolla, Camry and Avalon. The

was never built in Australia. As of 2006, Altona produced the Camry. Production of the Avalon has ceased, due for replacement on the manufacturing line by the

Toyota Aurion The Toyota Aurion is a mid-size car produced by Toyota in Australia and parts of Asia from 2006 to 2017. In the two generations it was produced, the Aurion was derived from the equivalent Camry. Changes were mainly limited to revised front- an ...

, which shares many components with the Camry. Production of the Camry Hybrid began in 2010 after a $35 million subsidy was secured from the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

. The first locally-made Australian Toyota Hybrid Camry was completed and revealed to public on 11 December 2009, driven by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In February 2014, it was announced Toyota would cease manufacturing vehicles and engines in Australia by the end of 2017. The decision was based on the unfavourable Australian dollar making exports not viable, the high cost of local manufacture and the high amount of competition in a relatively small local market. The company consolidated its corporate functions in Melbourne at the end of 2017 when its Sales & Marketing operation relocated from Woolooware Bay, Sydney. Head office (CHQ) remains in Port Melbourne and the Altona plant retained for other functions including a Centre Of Excellence and vehicle proving facility known as the Autodrome. The workforce is expected to be reduced from 3,900 to 1,300.

Manufacturing

Toyota built cars in Victoria, Australia between 1963 and 2017. The Altona factory would build three models—Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion—for domestic and export customers. in February 2014, Toyota Australia announced its decision to close its manufacturing plant by the end of 2017 and become a national sales and distribution company. Toyota vehicles built in Australia: * Toyota Tiara: 1963–1965 * Toyota Crown: 1966–1980 * Toyota Corona: 1965–1987 * Toyota Camry: 1987–2017 *

: 1968–1999 *

: 1989–1996 *

Toyota Lexcen The Holden Commodore is a full-size car that was sold by Holden from 1978 to 2020. It was manufactured from 1978 to 2017 in Australia and from 1979 to 1990 in New Zealand, with production of the locally manufactured versions in Australia endin ...

: 1989-1996 * Toyota Avalon: 2000–2005 *

: 2006–2017 * Toyota Camry Hybrid: 2009–2017

Altona plant

The Altona plant was the Toyota Australia manufacturing facility that operated in the Melbourne suburb of Altona. It opened in 1994, replacing the previous Port Melbourne site, but closed in 2017. The plant produced the Camry and Aurion for sale locally in Australasia and for export to the Middle East, as well as the Corolla until the switch to the fully imported 8th Generation. Until the early 2000s, export to East and Southeast Asia also occurred. The plant also manufactured the Avalon between 2000 and 2005. In December 2009, full-scale production of the new Australian

Camry Hybrid The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...

commenced. On 11 December 2009, manufacture of the first locally-made Camry Hybrid was completed and revealed to the public, writing a new page in the history of the Australian automotive industry. In April 2012, Toyota retrenched 350 workers. Toyota received criticism for the manner in which the process was carried out; for example, deploying security guards to escort sacked staff. The plant closed on 3 October 2017, marking the end of Toyota's automobile manufacturing in Australia. In March 2019, Toyota announced plans to build a Hydrogen Centre at Altona partly funded by the

Australian Renewable Energy Agency The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is an independent agency of the Australian federal government, established in 2012 to manage Australia's renewable energy programs, with the objective of increasing supply and competitiveness of A ...

(ARENA) with existing infrastructure to be repurposed. The Hydrogen Centre was commissioned on 29 March 2021 and incorporates a commercial-grade hydrogen production, storage and refuelling facility together with a education centre and a service facility for a

Toyota Mirai The (from , Japanese for 'future') is a mid-size hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) manufactured by Toyota, and is one of the first FCV automobiles to be mass-produced and sold commercially. The Mirai was unveiled at the November 2014 Los Angel ...

fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) demonstration fleet. The facility has the capacity to produce up to 80 kg of hydrogen per day by

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

with a 200 kW electrolyser using electricity from a 87 kW

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

, a 100 kW

battery storage A battery storage power station is a type of energy storage power station that uses a group of batteries to store electrical energy. Battery storage is the fastest responding dispatchable source of power on electric grids, and it is used to s ...

or from the

power grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

. The hydrogen refuelling station will be the first to be made available to the public in Victoria. The Centre also has a 30 kW

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

to convert the stored hydrogen into electricity for backup power and to feed into the mains grid. The education centre had earlier been completed in April 2020. The centre will support the newly imported second generation Toyota Mirai released in Australia in April 2021 with an initial allocation of 20 vehicles for organizations and business. Toyota previously imported 10 first generation Mirai that were used in a loan program between 2018 and 2019 with a portable refuelling station developed in 2016 that was transportable on a Hino 700 truck to refuel the Mirai.

Sales

Toyota Australia has held the largest market share of Australia's new car market for eighteen consecutive years from 2003 - 2020 Above figures exclude Lexus sales.

Lineup

Passenger models *

Toyota Yaris The is a supermini/ subcompact car sold by Toyota since 1999, replacing the Starlet and Tercel. Up to 2019, Toyota had used the Yaris nameplate on export versions of various Japanese-market models, with some markets receiving the same vehicl ...

(

subcompact car Subcompact car is a North American classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications. According to the U.S. Environmental Prote ...

) *

(

compact car Compact car is a vehicle size class — predominantly used in North America — that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However, p ...

) *

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door Sedan (automobile), sedan, it has been produced only as ...

(compact car) * Toyota Camry (

mid-size car Mid-size—also known as intermediate—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than compact cars and smaller than full-size cars. "Large family car" is a UK term and a part of the D-segment in t ...

) * Toyota GR 86 (

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

) * Toyota GR Yaris (sports car) * Toyota GR Supra (sports car) SUV models * Toyota Yaris Cross ( mini SUV/

Subcompact crossover SUV Subcompact crossover SUV is an automobile segment used to describe the smallest segment of crossover SUV, a type of sport utility vehicle, below the compact crossover SUV. Subcompact crossover SUVs are usually based on a platform of a subcompact ...

) * Toyota C-HR (Subcompact crossover SUV) * Toyota RAV4 ( compact crossover SUV) *

Toyota Kluger The Toyota Highlander, also known as the , is a mid-size crossover SUV with three-row seating produced by Toyota since 2000. Announced in April 2000 at the New York International Auto Show and arriving in late 2000 in Japan and January 2001 in ...

(

mid-size crossover SUV Mid-size crossover SUV is an automobile classification used mainly in North America to describe a segment of crossover SUV, a type of sport utility vehicle, between compact crossover SUV and full-size crossover SUV. A mid-size crossover SUV ...

) *

Toyota Fortuner The Toyota Fortuner, also known as the Toyota SW4, is a mid-size SUV manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota since 2004. Built on the Hilux pickup truck platform, it features two/three rows of seats and is available in either rear-wheel d ...

( mid-size SUV) * Toyota Land Cruiser Prado ( full-size SUV) *

(full-size SUV) Commercial models *

Toyota Hilux The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although they ...

( Mid-size ute) * Toyota Land Cruiser (J70) (ute/ troop carrier/full-size SUV) * Toyota HiAce (

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

) * Toyota Granvia (people mover) *

Toyota Coaster The is a single-decker minibus produced by Toyota Motor Corporation. It was introduced in 1969, with the second generation introduced in 1982, followed by the third generation in 1993 and the fourth generation in late 2016. In Japan, the Coa ...

( bus)

Motorsport

Toyota Team Australia competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

with Sprinters, Corollas and a Supra managed by A.M.I Toyota with Team Manager, Tony Niovanni. It also competed in the

Australian Rally Championship The Australia Rally Championship (ARC) is Australia's leading road motor rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968. Competition - to 2010 The Australia Rally Championship takes in some of the c ...

with

Neal Bates Neal Bates (born 19 March 1965) is an Australian rally and racing car driver. Throughout his career Bates has been associated with Toyota in the Australian Rally Championship and for 19 years his Neal Bates Motorsport outfit ran Toyota's official ...

. In March 2015, Toyota Australia announced an affordable, grassroots motorsport series based on the country's best-selling sports car, the Toyota 86 coupe, to be raced at

Supercars Championship The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

events. The series started in 2016 and is run as a pro-am with up to five selected professional drivers who will mentor and compete against a larger field of amateur drivers who will qualify to get onto the starting grid. The Toyota 86 Pro-Am race series, under the official banner of Toyota Racing Australia, is staged at selected Supercars events and has been sanctioned by the

Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Motorsport Australia, formerly the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), is the nationally recognised governing and sanctioning body for four-wheeled motorsport in Australia. It is affiliated with the Federation Internationale de l'Au ...

Supporting facilities

Toyota Technical Centre Australia (TTC-AU). Formed in June 2003 in Notting Hill, Victoria to do Body Engineering; Chassis, Mechanical Engineering & Evaluation; Customer Quality Engineering; Electronics Engineering; and Support. This facility closed on 30 June 2016 with the loss of 160 jobs.

Sponsorship

Toyota Australia supports a wide range of Australian activities through its community sponsorship and promotions program. These include the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

, where it has been the premier partner since 2004, AFLW, as well as Cricket Australia, the Australian Paralympic Committee, cycling, triathlon, surfing and snow sports. It is also a key partner of the

Tamworth Country Music Festival The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual Australian music festival held for 10 days from Friday to Sunday in mid to late January each year, sometimes including Australia Day, in Tamworth, New South Wales. The festival is the second bigg ...

, in addition to being the major sponsor of Planet Ark's National Tree Day.

References

External links

Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Website
{{Automotive industry in Australia Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1958 Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies Car manufacturers of Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Australian companies established in 1958