Australian car-making reaches the end of the road

One of the richest nations on the planet with a rich history of car manufacturing has seen the end of car-making with the closure of the Holden plant.

Car manufacturing in Australia is over, as Holden closes its plant in Adelaide in South Australia. Holden has produced more than seven million vehicles in their manufacturing history.

Holden is not the only car maker to have closed down production in the face of a strong Australian dollar and intense competition from vehicle manufacturers in South East Asia and elsewhere. Toyota closed a plant at Geelong on 3 October 2017 and Ford ended manufacturing plants in 2016. Mitsubishi brought their car-making industry to a close almost a decade ago.

Whenever jobs are lost in high-skilled manufacturing there are fears about the scale and depth of the structural unemployment is causes and the knock-on effects on the supply-chain industry. Manufacturing has ended although engineering research continues along with component suppliers to keep existing vehicles on the road. 

The end of car manufacturing in Australia, with the closure of the Holden factory is perhaps mere footnote in its industrial history, but noteworthy nonetheless.

Passenger car registrations in Australia