Toyota Australia has marked a 25 year presence in Altona, Melbourne, with a celebration at its engine plant for past and present employees.
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Toyota’s car making history ‘down under’ began with Australian Motor Industries (AMI) in Port Melbourne assembling Tiaras from CKD assembly kits under licence in 1963 and later adding the Corolla, Corona and Crown. The Altona factory, opened in 1978, was the first Toyota engine plant outside Japan.
Toyota Australia later acquired AMI and began making cars in a purpose-designed assembly plant at Altona in 1994.
More than 1,250,000 engines have rolled off the Australian production line in 25 years and today the engine plant currently produces 400 2.4-litre four-cylinder engines daily which are then installed in Camrys on the nearby production line.
In 1979 then prime minister Malcolm Fraser conducted the official opening ceremony of the engine plant which originally had 90 employees producing a 1.3 litre engine. At the ceremony he politely declined to take lunch with Toyota board members, preferring to eat in the employees’ canteen where he enjoyed a traditional pie and sauce.
The opening of the engine plant was followed by the opening of a panel stamping plant in 1981 and car assembly in 1995.
Toyota claims market leadership and is on target to sell about 180,000 vehicles in Australia in 2003. It currently assembles the Camry and Avalon (an earlier model than the one made in the US) at Altona and expects to produce 117,000 vehicles this year. The Camry is built with both right- and left-hand drive and Toyota expects to ship 66,000 to more than 20 international markets this year, including the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, New Zealand and South Africa.
