"We did everything that we could to transform our business, but the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia," said Toyota Australia President and CEO Max Yasuda.
In an official statement, Yasuda said that the closure would directly affect 2,500 manufacturing employees and an unknown number of corporate workers. However, a report in the Australian newspaper The Age suggests that the jobs of 24,000 workers at Australian auto suppliers could also be in jeopardy. Toyota currently builds its Camry, Camry Hybrid, Aurion sedans in Australia, along with four-cylinder engines, and it plans to begin importing the Camry and Aurion after production stops.
The plight of the Australian auto industry took a sharp turn for the worse last May when Ford announced that it would end Australian production in 2016. GM revealed its plans in December to stop building Down Under in 2017. In less than a year, the country has lost all three of its remaining domestic automakers (Mitsubishi stopped building cars in AU back in 2008). Questions whether Toyota would stay arose soon after GM's news. The Japanese auto giant had hoped to work with local suppliers to find a way to keep production running, but apparently it could not find a way to make the math work.
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