Camry update driven by export markets needs

It would have been easy to keep the current Camry in production for the last two years of production at Toyota's Altona plant in Melbourne's western suburbs.

But the company has committed to introducing a major update of the family car that has been the biggest selling mid-sized sedan in Australia for the past 21 years. That decision has been driven in part by the $30 million funding provided by the federal government prior to the last election, but Toyota Australia boss Tony Cramb says there were other factors at play.

"Starting next month, Toyota will release 10 new or refreshed models in the space of just one year," the Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at TMCA told local journalists yesterday.

"We will introduce the boldest Camry ever during the second quarter of 2015. With such a significant redesign, the new-look Camry heralds a fresh chapter for a car that is ingrained in the local automotive culture and in the buying habits of Australians.

"I can assure you that Toyota will honour the proud local history of this global car, by continually developing its technology and features so that Camry remains one of Australia's favourite cars for many years to come."

Questioned later, Cramb explained in greater detail the reasons for the decision to introduce the updated Camry this year.

"The investment [in] the final Camry is the sort of thing that actually makes me proud to be a Toyota person. The most financially expedient decision would be not to do that, because we're just going to run out a car – and we'll survive, we'll make it.

"But instead, Toyota's taken the customer perspective: 'Well, this car's going to be available in other parts of the world; the Australian consumer deserves the car; we're going to make the car'."

According to the Toyota boss, the upgraded Camry will "pay tribute... to those people worried about losing their job" – and specifically losing their job prior to the official closure date in 2017. By implication Toyota is grappling with a conspiracy theory that the company will close sooner than 2017, just as Ford and Holden have had to do.

"This is a show of strength for the suppliers and for everybody that's ever built a Toyota in Australia..." Cramb said.

It's not just local Camry buyers and production line staff who would be affected by an 'expedient' decision. Toyota Australia's markets in the Middle East remain reliant on Altona for Camry supply right up until the local plant closes down. Of the 90,000 units built at Altona last year, 60,000 were exported.

Opting to stay with the current Camry through to 2017 would have left the Australian and the Middle East markets with an old product that wouldn't be updated until commencement of facelift model exports from the new factory (which is likely to be Thailand).

That facelift model would have run for just half the usual model cycle and would already be dated in the export markets. Cost saving may have been an expedient decision for Toyota Australia, but there's also a degree of expediency in keeping the product fresh in markets currently supplied by Altona – and holding that $30 million of government money.