Another global auto giant exits Australia
Engineering and parts firm with ties to Ford, Chevrolet, Porsche, AMG and Aston Martin closes Aussie opsJust weeks after Vietnamese start-up VinFast shut its Australian research and development office, the local car industry has taken another hit with Canadian automotive giant Multimatic confirmed to leave the country.
Multimatic is well-known for its DSSV shock absorbers that are fitted to the likes of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and Colorado ZR2, the Mercedes-AMG GT, Aston Martin One-77 and the latest Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
But it is an organisation that has enormous road car and motorsport engineering depth and skills, including designing and manufacturing the Ford GT supercar and Ford Mustang GT4.
It also had a hand in the new 2022 Aston Martin Valhalla, as “a long-term engineering and production partner to Aston Martin”.
The Australian office in the Melbourne suburb of Notting Hill was set up more than six years ago and was used by Multimatic as a launch pad into the growing Asian automotive industry.
In particular, Multimatic’s Australian division provided engineering services to Chinese manufacturers.
However, with travel curtailed during the COVID pandemic, carsales understands that business became harder to sustain.
The precise reasons for Multimatic’s Australian closure have not been publicly stated, nor when it will happen or the number of jobs affected.
General manager Jim Griffin declined to be interviewed by carsales.
COVID was also primarily blamed by VinFast for shutting its Port Melbourne R&D centre with the loss of an estimated 90 jobs, many of them ex-Holden who had only recently been retrenched from that business.
However, VinFast continues to operate the former Holden Lang proving ground it purchased in 2020.
The primary automotive engineering operation left in Australia is Ford’s Asia-Pacific product development centre in Victoria, which employs approximately 2000 staff across its sites.
The two most obviously successful automotive engineering and design consultancies left in Australia are the Walkinshaw Automotive Group and Premcar, which trace their development back to the old Holden Special Vehicles and Ford Performance Vehicles operations respectively.
WAG will convert about 10,000 full-size RAM and Chevrolet pick-ups to right-hand drive this year, while Premcar develops and assembles the Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior.
Both are understood to currently be hiring engineering staff.
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