Toyota Australia has celebrated the production of its two millionth locally built vehicle, a silver Camry.
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Australia was one of the first countries outside Japan to build Toyota vehicles. The first car – a Tiara – rolled off the company’s old assembly line in Port Melbourne in April 1963.
It took 29 years to build the first million Toyotas in Australia and only 12 years to build the second million.
“It is a source of great pride that more than half the cars produced at Altona are now exported to countries all over the globe,” said the president of Toyota Motor Corporation Australia, Ted Okada.
Only 1,684 Tiaras were assembled in Australia before production was switched to the long-running Corona (336,197) and Crown (46,690).
Corolla assembly began at Port Melbourne in 1968 and ran until 1999, with total production reaching 601,104 vehicles (plus another 28,128 badged Nova for General Motors’ Australian subsidiary Holden).
Toyota Australia began building the Camry in 1987 and only 13 years later it overtook the Corolla as the most popular model in the company’s history – the Camry accounts for almost half of the two million vehicles produced over the past 41 years.
Car production was transferred from Port Melbourne to the company’s new $420 million facility at Altona in 1994.
Exports of left-hand drive Camrys commenced to the Middle East in 1995 and now total around 350,000 units.
Toyota last year exported 66,200 Australian-made Camrys to over 20 destinations, including near-neighbour New Zealand, which has imported the model since 1993 and also takes the larger Avalon.
