Toyota Coronavirus effort confirmed

Federal authorities have confirmed Toyota Australia has volunteered its skills for the fight against the Coronavirus.

As we revealed on Friday, Toyota has offered its design, engineering and 3D manufacturing capabilities to support the government’s battle with COVID-19.

Toyota has a long history of design in Australia, where it developed the 2006 Aurion Sports concept, the 2003 X-Runner concept and the 2004 Sportivo Coupe concept (pictured).

It joins other Australian automotive companies such as Ford, Walkinshaw Group (HSV) and Premcar in seeking to fight the pandemic, which as of this morning has claimed 18 lives in Australia and 36,946 globally.

Supercars team Erebus Motorsport has also hit the headlines for manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE), while automotive and motorsport companies globally are focussing their resources on fighting the spread of COVID-19.

Factory Holden Supercars squad Triple Eight Race Engineering has also revealed a low-cost ventilator prototype.

The manufacture of ventilators and their components is a key area for which the skills and capabilities of both Toyota and Ford are being considered.

Ventilators help critically ill Coronavirus patients breathe and are in short supply in the Australian health system.

A ventilator taskforce manned by public servants has been set up by the federal department of industry, science, energy and resources to rectify that shortage.

“Ford and Toyota are among the companies who have offered their capabilities and the taskforce is in discussions with these companies,” a spokesman for the department said.

“The ventilator taskforce has received an overwhelming number of offers of assistance from industry to design or manufacture whatever is needed – from 3D printing of ventilator parts, to designing new concept ventilator machines.”

The spokesman urged any businesses keen to offer their capabilities do so via a website set up by the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre.