After 54 long years, Toyota has officially ended production in Australia following the closure of the Altona plant near Melbourne.
With Toyota ending manufacturing in Australia and Ford’s similar move in October last year, Holden remains the only major automaker still operating a manufacturing plant in the country. However, the local arm of General Motors will shut up shop on October 20.
As part of the shutdown, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia will re-establish the Altona plant as a training and product development facility. Additionally, it will shift sales and marketing functions from Sydney to its Melbourne headquarters.
The Japanese carmaker first commenced production in Australia in April 1963 with the Tiara at its Port Melbourne plant. The Altona plant was subsequently opened in July 1994 and started to build the ever-popular Corolla. The plant then commenced production of the Camry in March 1995 before the Aurion was added to the list of locally-built models in October 2006.
Production of the Aurion ceased in August and the final Camry Hybrid was built in late September.
During its time in Australia, Toyota built 3,451,115 vehicles.
PHOTO GALLERY
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