Ford Leaves Australian Car Making Behind

Ford Falcon

Australia is a relatively small car market, which tries to have a car making industry. Volume is the name of the manufacturing game today, and that is the problem in Australia - trying to make enough cars for the industry to be viable. Toyota and GM got around this by sending cars to the Middle East, but Ford for some reason couldn't establish an export programme beyond New Zealand. Therefore it has announced the decision to pull out of car making in Australia in 2016.

It's not that the Australian government hasn't tried. It has poured billions of dollars into propping up the industry, yet Ford was losing money anyway. Ford has fallen to a level of car production that makes you realise closure was merely being put off by government assistance. You can see this in the chart below which shows car production in five year increments from 1990, and includes light utility vehicles. The average figure is based on the years shown:

Yr	Toyota	Holden	Ford	Mitsub	Nissan	Total
90	-	154,800	130,000	33,700	57,900	376,400
95	63,200	114,300	110,300	39,700	-	327,500
00	92,300	130,500	85,800	36,300	-	344,900
05	109,200	153,000	108,200	18,700	-	389,100
10	119,900	64,200	56,000	-	-	240,100
11	93,600	88,000	37,800	-	-	219,400
Avg	95,640	117,467	88,017	32,100	57,900	316,233

Ford was the first car maker 'down under' about 90 years ago. Then 50 Years ago came the Falcon, a large car that was popular in a big country. More Australians live in cities now and are preferring smaller cars and SUVs, the big car falling out of favour. They currently make the Falcon and Territory SUV.

It's big news for Australia, but in the bigger scheme of things part of the industry's evolution. Will Toyota and Holden follow? Toyota are upbeat about staying but Holden have suggested more financial assistance would be helpful.

Ford Territory