Global GM boss sounds warning for Toyota

The global boss of General Motors, Dan Akerson, says it is too expensive to manufacture cars in Australia -- an ominous sign for Toyota, which is reviewing the future of its Altona facility after Holden’s decision to shut its car factory in 2017.

Mr Akerson, who is retiring in January after restructuring the world’s second biggest car maker since the Global Financial Crisis, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington overnight: “There were so many factors in (the Holden) decision”.

“Basically you have a low tariff economy, so outside importers to the country had an advantage. You had a strong Aussie dollar, a supply chain that is weaker because of fewer auto makers in the country so there were a number of factors.”

Mr Akerson added that “the Australian market is expensive to produce there and Mitsubishi and Ford have all gotten out leaving us and Toyota. There is concern about the supply chain, we are concerned about foreign currency, we are concerned about low tariffs and having to compete with people who are building in Thailand and importing into the country.”

The manufacturing future of Toyota Australia is under a cloud after Ford announced it would shut its factories by no later than 2016 and Holden’s announcement last week that it would close its manufacturing operations by no later than 2017.

Last Friday Toyota workers won a Federal Court battle to abstain from voting on changes to wages and conditions that Toyota says were crucial to the survival of the Altona car assembly line and engine plant.

At the weekend, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Toyota would not get any extra taxpayer cash -- or any surplus funds left over from Holden’s factory shutdown.

“The lesson of the motor industry is that once you start subsidising businesses you get yourself onto a treadmill,” Mr Abbott told the financial press.

“If the price of keeping the car industry is unacceptably high, well, you just have to accept that these are the trade-offs that life sometimes involves.”

Mr Abbott added there was “every chance we can keep Toyota but the level of assistance (will be) roughly the same (as before).”

However, also weighing against Toyota Australia’s manufacturing future is a target to slash $3800 from the cost of each car it builds, to bring it in line with the eight other factories that make the Camry globally.

Meanwhile sales of the Camry locally are down 10 per cent in a record year and export orders have dipped since last year.

News Corp Australia understands Toyota summonsed senior executives from around the country to a meeting at its Melbourne headquarters yesterday.

However, an announcement on the future of the Toyota Altona factory is not due until next year.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling