I congratulate Australian PM Kevin Rudd for announcing a A$6·2 billion stimulus package for the Australian car industry.
   I have been following the industry for many years and predicted some of the shifts in companies there before they came to light.
   And since I believe the next Ford Falcon will be a tweaked Mondeo and engineered in Köln while Ford Australia’s R&D will be used on adapting more humble models for the Asian market, a stimulus package that encourages the Big Three—GM, Ford and Toyota—to innovate and go green sends the right signals.
   Australia has long innovated in the automotive industry but a lot of its contributions have not seen the light of day. With Rudd’s political will—as one would expect from any top–down approach of this sort—I am hoping that this time things will be different.
   Doing the same old, same old will not help Australia and the 61,000 people employed by the motor industry—five per cent of Australian manufacturing’s workforce.
   What Rudd wants to see are innovative alternatives to the petrol-driven internal combustion engine.
   GM and Toyota will likely go to the hybrid route and Ford is looking at diesels and natural gas.
   New Zealand was once a world leader in natural gas-powered cars and creating a national infrastructure for CNG and LPG, knowledge which I have always maintained could have given us a competitive advantage and export royalties and income.
   Like so many things, I think Australia will show us what could have been as it uses its new technologies for those very reasons.
   Countries like Red China are obsessed with regurgitating old technologies, which means that whatever lead Australia is able to create from the extra funds can be significant as far as the Asia–Pacific region is concerned.
   With Ford Australia in particular developing for Asian markets, Australian-spearheaded technologies may find their way across the region.
   The concern I have is that these ideas will ultimately not be Australian-owned as the automakers are all foreign-owned. Australians need to remember that while Holden is referred to colloquially as ‘Australia’s own’, it hasn’t been that way since 1931. Detroit engineers even cooperated with Australian ones on the first supposedly all-Australian Holden, the 48-215.
   While it will keep some manufacturing in Australia and prove to the world that the R&D departments there are worth more than their parents realize, it’s not the same as all the profits remaining in the country. However, if it encourages their parents to put more work Australia’s way than they currently do, then Rudd has achieved his aim and the $6 billion will flow back into the country’s coffers.
   Looking even more widely, Rudd’s injection could even change the face of motoring, making it more green globally, and that, too, must be worth it. I hope the Australians get even more creative than the plans they currently have on their drawing boards. Posted by Jack Yan, 08:41  permalink

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