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Automotive manufacturing could return to Australia, Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm claims

Australia has the potential to revive its manufacturing industry and become a renewable energy superpower, according to the locally-born head of Tesla.


The Sydney-born Chair of Tesla Inc – Robyn Denholm – believes the world-wide transition to electric vehicles and sustainable energy infrastructure could present Australia with the opportunity to revive its local automotive manufacturing industry.

Speaking at the Australian Minerals Council conference in Canberra this week, the businesswoman said: “We can achieve a thriving economy fuelled by better jobs, mining jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs, technology jobs, renewable energy jobs – and a thriving environment enabled through cleaner energy and practices.”

“Can Australia move even further up the value chain? To large scale cell manufacturing? To vehicles? In my view, that’s a possibility. Australia has the minerals, the know-how and many of the skills,” she also said in the speech, which was seen in full by CarAdvice overnight.

“... I don’t know whether Australia will manufacture full vehicles again [at a wide scale], but I know Australia can because I’ve seen us do it before. I know if we do, they’ll be electric.”

Ms Denholm formerly worked for Toyota Australia, and was part of a wider team that established the brand’s west Melbourne Altona factory in 1994. The site would ultimately go on to build more than one million examples of the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Aurion, and Avalon.

Despite the facility ceasing operations in 2017 – one year after Ford closed its Norlane and Campbellfield factories, and just months before General Motors shut down its Holden Elizabeth Plant – Denholm says local manufacturing still has the potential to thrive.

“Imagine an Australia where lithium is mined in Ravensthorpe; it’s refined in Kwinana; used to manufacture battery cells in Rockhampton; which are installed in a bus built in Moss Vale. The bus is recharged with equipment built and designed in Brisbane, powered by Australian solar energy courtesy of silicon quartz mined in South Australia.

“It’s actually not that hard to imagine – because most of those things are already happening or are about to happen."

Just a small handful of extremely low-volume cars continue to be built locally, the most prominent of which is the Brabham BT62. Earlier this year CarAdvice reported the brand was preparing to announce an all-new Australian built road-going supercar in late 2021.

Australian-delivered Teslas are currently built exclusively in China, at the brand's Giga Shanghai plant.


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William Davis

William Davis has written for Drive since July 2020, covering news and current affairs in the automotive industry. He has maintained a primary focus on industry trends, autonomous technology, electric vehicle regulations, and local environmental policy. As the newest addition to the Drive team, William was brought onboard for his attention to detail, writing skills, and strong work ethic. Despite writing for a diverse range of outlets – including the Australian Financial Review, Robb Report, and Property Observer – since completing his media degree at Macquarie University, William has always had a passion for cars.

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