We’re approaching 10 years since full-vehicle car production ended in Australia, after Ford, Toyota and Holden all shut their production lines between October 2016 and October 2017.
Since then, the car market has dramatically changed, with China now the number one source of vehicle imports to Australia, while SUVs and dual-cab utes dominate the sales charts.
There remain niche parts of the automotive industry seeing success locally, such as the right-hand drive conversion business of Walkinshaw, Premcar’s OEM-backed modified Nissan Warriors, and the Savic C-Series electric motorbike, though cars remain off the table of being made here.
However, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese believes there’s “no reason why we can’t make (electric) vehicles” locally, making the bold call at the launch of News Corp’s ‘Back Australia’ campaign.
“At the very least, we can make parts and components, including batteries here,” the Prime Minister said, as reported by the Herald Sun.
“Indeed there are companies looking at doing just that.
“We saw a decline of manufacturing in Australia because of differential labour costs. New technology means that labour is less important than transport costs.”
“Because technology is ubiquitous, it’s available everywhere.”
Arguably the biggest example of Australia still having a global impact on vehicles is Ford’s T6 platform which underpins the likes of the Ranger ute and Everest SUV, as well as the Bronco SUV sold in North America.
While the T6 platform is designed and engineered in Australia utilising Ford’s You Yangs proving ground near Geelong, none of the vehicles it’s underpinned by are built here, with the Ranger being made in Thailand, South Africa and the US, while the Everest is made in Thailand and the Bronco is only manufactured in the US.
The Herald Sun reports Australia’s manufacturing industry dropped from 14 per cent in 1990 of our GDP to just five per cent in 2025, something which the Prime Minister said was a “lesson in dependence”.
“We stepped back, the United States did as well and we saw manufacturing go largely to China and Asia.
“That creates a vulnerability, and we need to use the capacity that we have to make more things here.”
Albanese added that he laments the demise of Holden when asked about his favourite bygone Australian products.
“Sunnyboys’ Glug (cola) and the green one (pine lime ice blocks),” he told event attendees.
“And it’s a pity we don’t have Holden cars anymore.”
Holden ended local production of the Commodore in October 2017, and was wrapped up as a brand entirely on January 1, 2021.
Toyota, which stopped Australian production of the Camry in the same month as the Commodore, remains the most popular car brand locally, having been the market leader for more than two decades consecutively.
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