Greening the Australian automotive industry

In 2010, it was estimated that there were 896 million cars operating in the world and this number is expected to climb to almost 1.2 billion by 2020.  Globally, passenger motor vehicles are responsible for one-tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions.  The powerful global auto industry and the commodity it produces, so synonymous with environmental cost, is being held up by some as a transformational prototype, via the proposition that if the auto industry can be greened, every industry can.  In 2007, the newly elected Australian Labor government committed to the formation and implementation of a Green Car Innovation Fund, to assist Australia’s ailing automotive manufacturing industry green the cars it produces, the manufacturing process and jobs within the industry.  This paper engages with the task of examining the three multinational vehicle producers operating in Australia, Ford, GM Holden and Toyota, and how they have responded and engaged with the idea of green jobs, greening the manufacturing process and the vehicles that they produce in Australia.  This analysis and discussion is informed by semi-structured in-depth interviews with senior representatives within the Australia auto industry, unions and policy makers and supplemented with industry documents and secondary sources.