Toyota releases Aurion at Melbourne Motor Show

Toyota Aurion
Toyota's Aurion: The manufacturer's new V6 it hopes will compete front-on with Holden's Bernlina and Ford's Fairmont.


09 February 2006

Paul Gover

Aurion - get used to it. It is the new name that Toyota plans to make as popular in Australia as Commodore and Falcon.

Aurion was chosen for the all-new V6 family car that is being unwrapped this morning at the press preview for the Melbourne International Motor Show. It will be set straight up against the Holden and Ford family favourites when sales begin at the back end of 2006.

The Aurion is based on an all-new Camry, which is missing from the Melbourne Exhibition Centre despite being previewed in the USA, but has a very different and more upmarket look.

There will also be an Aurion Sportivo.

Toyota has tried before to challenge Australia's showroom leaders, first with the Lexcen - a poor-quality re-badged Commodore in the 1980s - and then with the outdated and unimpressive Avalon.

It has always believed that it must have a credible and successful big-six contender if it is to win the heartland support it craves so desperately.

Toyota Australia has tried everything else to become accepted as more than just a Japanese brand, even buying the major sponsorship rights to the AFL and signing on as vehicle supplier for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

This time it believes it has the right approach, as the Aurion was designed by an Aussie - 31-year-old Nick Hogios of Toyota Style Australia - and has been developed locally for Australian roads and owners.

It took a big push to convince Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan that the Australian team had the people and skills to do the job, which including sending Hogios to work in Nagoya and regular visits by Paul Beranger, the veteran head of Toyota Style Australia, to oversee the project.

Beranger produced the X-Runner pick-up and Sportivo Coupe which starred at earlier Melbourne Motor Shows.

The unveiling this morning will be one of the biggest in Toyota's local history, including a webcast to dealerships around the country and a major news stunt. But nothing is bigger than the Aurion story, which includes direct support from Japan, which plans to make the car a major export earner.

"It's all part of a global strategy," Beranger says.

The plan is to sell the Aurion only as a V6, with the Camry only available with a four-cylinder engine, using a premium position closer to the Holden Berlina and Ford Fairmont.

Toyota says it is far to early to talk about price or models or even the mechanical specification, but everything points to a $35,000 starter price with a full list of standard equipment.

The production target is also being kept quiet, but Toyota Australia's factory at Altona has recently been upgraded to produce as many as 140,000 cars a year, split between the Camry and Aurion. The Camry is still likely to dominate the production line, with Aurion numbers growing slowly.

The newcomer will also be built in China, Taiwan and Thailand with the Hogios looks, but wearing a premium Camry badge.

And what about the Aurion name?

Toyota admits that it is a made-up name, but says it wanted to avoid anything too obviously ocker Aussie - Kakadu or kangaroo - or a continuation of Avalon. Cressida, the name of a premium Toyota import in the 1980s, was also rejected because of its history.

"Aurion means 'tomorrow' in ancient Greek," Beranger says. "The name also has overtones of Australia and Aurora - the Latin word for 'the dawn'.

we know the normal models will run the 2GR-FE 3.5L V6 engine, there will also be a Sportivo model, and also a performance model with a 3.5L V6 Supercharged engine

TOYOTA Motor Corporation Australia (TMCA) executive chairman John Conomos is aiming to lift Toyota’s vehicle production in Australia to an ambitious annual total of 200,000 vehicles via a third model line at its Altona plant in Melbourne.

However, he has conceded that such an increase – a rise of 60,000 vehicles a year – is predicated on the success of the forthcoming Aurion large car, which by his own admission is "a very bold risk by both TMC and TMCA".

Once in full production, July’s all-new Camry and November’s Aurion are expected to lift annual production at Altona from about 110,000 units last year to 140,000, 24,000 of which will be Aurions.

Mr Conomos told GoAuto last week that the annual production capacity could readily be expanded to 150,000, and his personal ambition was to produce 200,000 vehicles a year with three model lines.

"The plan is for 140,000 with two models lines and we have approval to increase production to 150,000 if pushed," he said.

"But a third model line would make 200,000 possible – that’s my personal goal.

"I think we have the potential, but it requires massive courage and to continuously improve cost, quality and customer satisfaction at the same time, which is almost impossible."

Mr Conomos said the need for a third product line was alleviated by Toyota Motor Corporation’s approval to manufacture up to 140,000 vehicles annually from 2006.

He added that a third model would only follow the success of Aurion, which he admits he is nervous about and describes as Toyota’s "last chance with a six-cylinder car".

"Aurion has to be successful and profitable before we can make further decisions. We won (approval to build Aurion) after 15 years but we haven’t sold a car yet."

Mr Conomos made it clear that Toyota was far from deciding exactly what form a possible third model would take, but a crossover-type vehicle appears to be the frontrunner.

"At the moment there is no approval for a third model line," he said. "We’ve talked about a crossover but that’s not decided. We don’t know the future trend of SUVs but that’s why we’re studying it very carefully.

"It’s too early to call the future of SUVs, sedans or large cars. Trying to predict that is what every CEO is doing right now.

"Holden tried and failed to build a crossover (Adventra) from its most successful vehicle ever."

Mr Conomos said that because exports play a pivotal role, Toyota Australia’s fiercest competitor was not GM Holden or Ford, but Toyota itself.

"TMC decided to produce cars for China themselves, so there will be no Chinese exports (for Aurion). And China’s labour cost is one-nineteenth of ours," he said.

"Every day the game changes. A third model line won’t be decided until a business case can be made – when we have a product that meets the requirements of an emerging market not just in Australia, but in Indonesia, the Philippines...

"We couldn’t build a car just for Australia – those days are gone. We first need to understand what our and other markets will want in 10 to 15 years.

"It could be a crossover between a number of things: sportscar, SUV, sedan, hybrid.

"We have to sell cars to fill Altona’s capacity. Our job is to sell cars in a market where everyone’s laying off. So we’re growing and recruiting, but remain circumspect and cautious."

Mr Conomos said a hybrid version of the forthcoming Camry would not eventuate.

"The world is clamouring for a Camry hybrid right now, but how many would we sell? Who’ll buy it over a Prius? Can we sustain the volume? We can’t answer those questions and to tool up and gear up suppliers without knowing that ... Sadly, it won’t happen in this generation."

Toyota was market leader in Australia last year without a representative in the lucrative but shrinking large-car segment, but Mr Conomos remains cautious about Aurion’s success.

"We take a long-term view that we want to be part of the large-car market. Aurion is the answer to the way we can be part of it. We don’t set out to be a V8 Supercar – we aren’t that arrogant. (But) we’ll be boringly the best."

Officially, TMCA hopes to increase total sales from last year’s 202,817 to 250,000 by 2010, including up to 80,000 exports – up from 69,000 last year – as part of TMC’s Global 15 plan, which aims to achieve a 15 per cent world market share.