Toyota expands Australian car design team as workload jumps

Ford and Holden aren’t the only brands to keep a design presence here once the tap fully turns off local car production.

Toyota Australia has just called for more staff to join its Port Melbourne-based product and planning division after snaring a big jump in workload.

The design team, currently located at Toyota Australia’s Bertie Street headquarters until it relocates to Altona after the carmaker’s Australian engine casting and assembly line closes later this year, will add nine staff to help it get over the production hump.

“Our product planning and development division recently advertised some contract based positions. Around nine roles were advertised in total, specifically for our product design team,” Toyota Australia spokeswoman Beck Angel said.

“The roles will be based in Port Melbourne and are to assist product design with a number of upcoming projects,” she said.

“Whilst I am currently not in a position to provide details of these projects, it is standard process for us to hire fixed term employees to assist during peak times.”

The jobs advertised are deep inside Toyota’s top-secret automotive design studio, and include a programmer who can work the studio’s new full-vehicle five-axis mill – a giant 3D printer for cars.

According to the advertisement, the positions are for “an expanding list of local and overseas projects”.

Asked if the reference to “local” projects indicated Australia would gain bespoke design tweaks, Angel declined to comment. “[There’s] nothing we are in a position to talk about at this time,” she said.

The design team’s most recent big-ticket project was the Toyota 86 Shooting Brake, a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso/Honda CR-Z style reinterpretation of the 2+2 sports coupe as a more practical wagon-rumped load lugger.

Toyota’s design team turned the 86 coupe into a two-door hatchback-style vehicle by changing the roofline, reshaping the rear quarter section and stretching the side glass to taper into the extended upper sheetmetal.

The bulk of the 86, including doors, front end and rear tail-lights and lower bumper were retained. However, while the concept was penned here, it was built in Japan.

"The silhouette is still sporty, taut and energetic, but it's more practical as it allows the roof to be used to carry surfboards, bikes or storage pods for a weekend away while the larger opening of the new boot enables much easier loading,” Toyota Australia chief designer Nicholas Hogios said at the car’s reveal ahead of the Festival of 86 event in Sydney last year.

Is the 86 Shooting Brake one of the studio’s projects?

“While we never say never, and I would love this concept to become a production reality, it is very much a concept that demonstrates the passion within Toyota for cars that are fun to drive,” Tetsuya Tada, the 86’s chief engineer, said.

Toyota is in the process of shifting many of its cars to all-new modular architectures called the Toyota New Generation Platform.

It currently underpins Toyota products including versions of the Camry sold overseas, the Prius hybrid, the soon-to-launch Toyota CH-R small SUV and the upcoming all-new Corolla small car. It also sits under the Lexus LC coupe and the recently revealed LS large saloon.

Australia’s design centre could also be working on final tweaks to the Toyota Supra ahead of its global debut, expected sometime this year.

A reborn version of the Supra, previewed several years ago by the US-designed FT-1 concepts, will share its BMW-engineered underpinnings with the upcoming Z5.

While Toyota’s version of the car will have a fixed roof, the BMW-badged one will remain a folding-roof roadster.