Carsales Staff•8 May 2014
NEWS
Toyota to pare back tech centre
Job losses at Notting Hill expected from early next yearToyota has announced that Toyota Technical Centre Australia (TTC-Au) will contract to a fraction of its current size once the local manufacturing plant at Altona has closed in 2017.
According to a press release issued today by Toyota, TTC-Au in its current form is not viable without a nearby production base to support its work. Home to the engineering effort for the Australian Camry Hybrid (pictured), TTC-Au has tended to be a supporting player in Toyota's global R&D effort. It has not been the leader in major projects, as Ford Australia has been with development of the T6 Ranger, or as in the case of Holden with the Cruze hatch.
Staggered redundancies will commence from early next year as major projects are completed and signed off. The press release indicates that TTC-Au – currently employing 160 staff – will carry on beyond 2017, conducting "a limited number of functions." What those functions will be has not been explained by Toyota, but are likely to be little more than durability testing, local suspension tuning and drivetrain calibration tasks for high-volume imports sold in Australia.
"Our immediate priority is to meet with each of our groups to explain the ramifications this decision will have on them and detail the support services that are available," Max Gillard, TTC-Au president, was quoted saying in the press release.
Toyota will reveal more about TTC-Au's post-2017 staffing levels and functions nearer the closure of the Altona plant.
At this point, Toyota's other R&D asset in Australia, TSA, will continue to operate after 2017. The styling facility has a lower 'head count' than TTC-Au and has been tasked with plenty of international (Asian) projects and accessories work to keep it going, so it's not dependent on local manufacturing to the same degree. But it's in the nature of global styling projects in a company as large as Toyota that jobs come and go, so TSA may be forced to shed some employees also.
TSA leaves Toyota with one R&D facility focused on global automotive design, just as Ford and Holden can claim, with Ford's engineering team and Holden's design studio.
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Written byCarsales Staff
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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