So is it the end of the Holden??

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by burnz

in most country's the department of defence, will need two fully capable automotive engineering company's for in times of war..
one company will be allowed to fold the others will be funded under national securitys.

Maybe in WW2 but not now, a modern car assembly plant with robots and just in time parts delivery simply doesnt have the flexibility to suddenly switch from making cars to Abrams tanks overnight. Australia now has secondary automotive vehicle body builders (like Thales Defence) for that sort of stuff.

[jpd80]

Edit...^^^^^^ What he said.

[Brazen]

It's not the car factory itself that is vital, it's the knowledge and expertise and skills built up from having that capability that is so important.

The car makers provide Australia with a design and engineering economies of scale, these flow onto other industries such as defense and mining.

Remember that for recent years Holden was the biggest private company spender on Research and Development in this country. The mechanical engineering, design and manufacturing capability this country gets because of that is staggering.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Brazen

It's not the car factory itself that is vital, it's the knowledge and expertise and skills built up from having that capability that is so important.

The car makers provide Australia with a design and engineering economies of scale, these flow onto other industries such as defense and mining.

Remember that for recent years Holden was the biggest private company spender on Research and Development in this country. The mechanical engineering, design and manufacturing capability this country gets because of that is staggering.

Precisely.

Remove car makers from this equation (and the R&D they spend here and the training they provide to do it) and guess what happens to those 2nd level automotive manufacturers/industries...