Toyota's Aussie skunkworks

Over 160 staff file in and out of Toyota's Technical Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Notting Hill most days of the week — and few outsiders would know what they're doing.

Few would care, for that matter, but TTC-Au, as it's known, is an important cog in the machine that is Toyota's worldwide R&D effort. The facility operates in collusion with other, similar Toyota facilities around the world. Like counterparts at Ford and Holden, its importance in the overall scheme of things far outweighs the global relevance of the tiny Australian market. No one can quite explain why the three Australian manufacturers have R&D facilities that are so snugly embedded in each company's respective global development programs.

We've been told in the past that Holden is regarded as the rear-drive large-car centre of expertise in the GM world. That has been vindicated by the company's involvement in the development of the Camaro for North America, although lately the local arm has been heavily committed to the development of the Cruze hatch — and that's a front-wheel drive small car. Nor does the rear-drive large car expertise apply in Ford's case. Broadmeadows has developed small front-drive cars for the Indian market and, more recently, a fairly sophisticated light commercial vehicle for markets all around the world.

Ask why TTC-Au is important in the Toyota world and you'll be told it's due to a global shortage of engineers or our time zone difference fills the gap in an otherwise contiguous 24-hour work program. TTC-Au president, Max Gillard put it quite succinctly in his speech last year for the launch of the latest (7th generation) Camry. It's our sophisticated component supplier base, he says.

"Apart from Australia’s advanced technical and engineering expertise, one of the reasons Toyota decided to set up TTC-Au was our country’s local component supplier base that was already manufacturing at standards equal to the world’s best."

At the risk of turning this political, it's this efficient and effective supplier base that will be lost to Australia if the government decides at some point down the track it will no longer engage in co-investment programs with the local manufacturing industry.

Within TMC (Toyota Motor Corporation), TTC-Au essentially fills two roles. It ensures that the car being developed, — the Camry, most recently — is a well-rounded design for the whole world. Secondly, TTC-Au works effectively as a lobby group within the Toyota R&D world, to ensure that the Camry is tailored carefully to suit the Australian market and also the Middle East — TMCA's largest export market.

In point of fact, TTC-Au not only works out of the Notting Hill premises, it also seconds staff to Japan, where they work alongside TMC designers and engineers. According to Max Gillard, 37 staff worked in Japan for two years during the development of the 7th generation of Camry.

Four were electrical engineers, developing the car's wiring harness and circuit design. In addition, they collaborated with Continental in the design of the manual heater control fascia. The fruits of their labours are manufactured by Continental for every Camry built in the eight plants around the world.

A heap of work on the car's body (cowl sheet metal, front and rear door shells, front-door regulator, glass channel, door handle, check strap, locks and hinges), plus the headlights — with TTC-Au working in conjunction with Hella Australia, have been incorporated into the global Camry design. Staff in Australia worked on the Camry's Auto High Beam and Blind Spot Monitor too. In the case of the former, Australian research revealed that the system, which dips the headlights automatically, could be 'fooled' by the dazzling reflection from roadside posts in the local market. 

TTC-Au has been tasked with the R&D requirements for Toyota markets in China, South Africa and South America. In addition, the facility is specifically tasked with the Camry model line in Japan and Russia — and Australia of course. It inevitably leads to an improved product for Australian consumers and hopefully lends Toyota's global R&D program some hard-core rough-road/hot-climate clout. It's not known whether any other market in the world endures the amount of 'bull dust' encountered in Australia, but if so, Camry buyers will be glad of TTC-Au's work on fine dust sealing.

If the benefits of TTC-Au working on the 7th generation Camry crystalised in anything of direct and immediate consequence for Australian consumers, it was the latest Camry Hybrid's ability to tow behind it. On his trip to Australia recently, Yukihiro Okane, Toyota's chief engineer in charge of the Camry program around the world (which includes Aurion) told motoring.com.au that "Camry is a global car, so there's no need to specialise for each country."

But he did admit designing the Camry Hybrid to tow was a "big request" — one that was presumably hard to ignore in the upper echelons of TMC.

The Camry, like many cars sold around the world, is only superficially 'the same'. But equally, there are limits to how far the core design can be customized for different markets. A car due to be replaced shortly, the Aurion is the 'prestige Camry' offshoot and while it's powered by a 3.5-litre V6 in Australia, it gets by with a 2.0-litre four in Thailand. According to Okane-san, Toyota can draw from a bag of component parts to achieve the appropriate vehicle type for specific markets.

"The core function" he sums up as "engine, drivetrain, transmission", which Toyota "will be developing one standard part globally", but that leaves many other elements of the car open to modification. In the case of Thailand, the availability of a small engine suited the needs of owners and operators of the 'prestige Camry' there.

"For the Australian market, Prestige Camry (that is the Aurion) needs 3.5-litre V6 to compete with local [competitors]," Okane-san said. "The driver is just a chauffeur," he said of the Aurion demographic in Thailand.

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