The Aussie taxpayer funds the creation of these vehicles totally.
Totally funded by the taxpayer? That means they should be free - or at least significantly cheaper than they are.
A 'Green' initiative that was never viable. Toyota have done the best, but really how many hybrid Camrys do they really build?
http://www.toyota.co...toyota-industry
Granted it was from 2012. However:
Last year, Camry Hybrid achieved its highest annual sales of 7,107 vehicles, cementing its position as Australia's best-selling hybrid vehicle.
Camry Hybrid achieved a record for any month of 1,143 cars in December, outselling Ford Falcon in the process.
It also states:
Industry figures reveal that almost 44 per cent of hybrid vehicles were bought by private customers last year, compared with fewer than 29 per cent in 2011.
So, selling a bit better than you thought.
Net profit negative without any subsidy
That is true for every Australian built car.
There aren't very many, if any at all, cars built in the world without some form of subsidy.
that is beyond the subsidies on ALL Australian vehicles which were becoming bigger every year as Labor tried to buy jobs for unionists!
The Automotive Transformation Scheme was reducing subsidies over its period of use (Jan 2011 - Dec 2020).
The ATS have two stages that run from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2020 and include:
capped assistance of $1.5 billion from 2011 to 2015 (Stage 1)
capped assistance of $1 billion from 2016 to 2020 (Stage 2)
uncapped assistance of approximately $847 million.
Note that this includes all manufacturers are part suppliers. For comparison, the fossil fuel industry is subsidised to the tune of $5b-$10b per year by Federal and State governments.
As with many, you blame the unions for the state of the car industry in Australia. The facts are more complicated than that.
One, the mining boom pushed up the Aussie dollar, and wages everywhere.
Two, Free Trade Agreements basically sold manufacturing out - 0 tariffs for imported cars compared to substantial tariffs in other countries. And many of the countries that export cars to Australia have higher subsidies for their industry.
Three, the Australian new car market is, perhaps, the most open and competitive in the world. There are more makes and models sold here than in the US, despite the market's small size. This makes getting the required volumes on the domestic market very difficult. With the value of the dollar and the FTAs in place, exporting became nigh on impossible. That is if the parent company allowed it in the first place.
The manufacturers needed a swift kick too as do State Governments who tax and tax all manufacturing, right out of the country!
It costs a lot of money to develop cars these days. To change type of model to suit buying trends would be nigh on impossible for the local manufacturers. They were, basically, stuck with what they had.
To build something that has already been developed, and which is being sold overseas, is uneconomic since they could be imported more cheaply, as the volumes are not there.
Not sure how State governments can tax manufacturing any more than they can tax other industry.
The manufacturers rolled over to the unionists, did not rationalise further their own practices.And Ford in particular with [to me at least] the best product then had very poor advertising and promotion plus cars with color schemes that buyers hated.
Not sure that a different colour scheme would make much difference.
You are again blaming the unions. Perhaps there were practices that could have been improved (long Christmas period for Toyota workers, for example), but it would not have prevented the collapse of the Australian industry without subsidies.
I have a gas only FG tray, good vehicle but really a turnoff for country buyers, as they tell me LPG is hard to get in the country, eg a 40k round trip to go buy it. This is country too, not the bush where it is more like 400k. It is near impossible to drive Adelaide Darwin or Perth in these things. Even to Sydney or Melbourne requires planning and more stops to fill up for the next reliable gas location. Worse at night!
I guess the country buyer would be stuck with the petrol-only version....