There is more difficult news for Australia’s beleaguered car industry as the head of Toyota in Australia announces that the company will be scaling back production in the country.
Amid the global car industry’s downturn, new figures show that February was the worst month for car sales in Australia since 2003 with sales down 22 per cent compared to the equivalent month last year.
Though the news of reduced production is a blow, Toyota is making efforts to avoid job cuts. Max Yasuda told ABC1′s Inside Business that the company is hoping green cars will help generate a recovery in the market next year outlining that the first priority in these difficult times is to keep the company’s workforce.
Yasuda wants federal and state governments to commit to using the green car when it is released stating that this is the “most serious challenge” that Toyota Australia has faced in its 50 year history. He believes the company needs to invent something that they have never done before in terms of its production system and in terms of how to sell a car.
Meanwhile, Holden is in talks with the union over local jobs in Australia after parent company General Motors announced plans to slash 50,000 jobs worldwide.
