2016 will go down as a major blow to the Australian automotive industry. After decades of local production, 2016 sees Ford, Toyota and Holden winding down local operations to exit the market for good, becoming import-only brands in the process.
According to News Australia, Holden has set a concrete day for the locally-assembled Cruze to expire: October 7, the same day Ford hits the lights on its Broadmeadows facility. Coincidentally, this is also the same day as the iconic Bathurst 1000, an instrumental motoring event for both Holden and Ford.
In the process, 320 additional jobs have been axed from the Holden’s Elizabeth plant, leaving around 1,000 line workers left to assemble the Holden VF Commodore Series II for one more year. In the meantime, Cruze production will scale down from 240 cars per day, to 165.
“Holden’s key priority at all times is to support our people and to manage this scheduled wind-down of manufacturing in a way that treats our employees with respect and dignity,” the Holden statement said.
“All Holden employees have counseling services available to them, as well as career coaching, training and job searching assistance.”
Workers at the Port Melbourne facility are expected to be released by the end of 2016 when the brand’s V6 engine plant shuts down for good, too.
The locally-produced Holden Cruze will be replaced by the Opel Astra K, which the brand confirmed earlier this year.
Comments
Holden and Toyota wind down in 2017, with Holden killing the Aussie made Cruze this year. Only Ford are fully winding down this year. BTW, news.com.au is probably the last place to be sourcing Australian car related news from. But other than that good article
Speaking of Bathurst, When Holden and Ford Australia stop local production what are they going to race each other with? V8 racing is a multi million dollar business here. Is that a a good enough business case for you GM to build the Camaro in RHD?
At the moment it seems Ford teams will stick with the FG X for at least another year, with the possibility of there being a Mustang-based car to replace it. Otherwise, Ford will just leave Supercars altogether. Holden will still run Commodores for at least the next year or two, with the possibility of a replacement coming from the long-awaited GM sports car which is meant to be coming down under after the Commodore’s demise, although it looks as though Holden might end up pulling out altogether at the moment.