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The Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited, known by its trading name Ford Australia, is the Australian subsidiary of United States-based automaker Ford Motor Company that was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA. Henry Ford had granted the manufacturing rights to Ford in British Empire (later Commonwealth) countries (excepting the UK) to Canadian investors. Its first products were Model Ts assembled from complete knock-down (CKD) kits provided by Ford of Canada. Nevertheless, it is best known in more recent times for having produced the Falcon, originally a U.S. model introduced in Australia in 1960, but adapted to Australian requirements and road conditions. Since the release of the XA model in 1972, Falcons have been fully Australian designed. It also produces a four-wheel-drive model called the Territory. Ford Australia is the only Australian car manufacturer which designs and manufactures its own unique high-volume engines.〔(Ford confirms local engine production to cease in 2010 when they begin importing the Duratec V6 )〕 In May 2013 Ford Australia announced that it would stop making cars after 88 years due to soaring manufacturing costs and plummeting sales. The carmaker released its annual financial report, which showed a loss of A$141m dollars (£90m/$136m) after tax for the 2012 financial year. That follows a loss of A$290m in 2011 and a total loss of A$600m over the past five years. As a result, 1,200 staff will lose their jobs. ==History== On March 31, 1925, Ford announced that Geelong, was to be the Australian headquarters. The first Australian-built Ford was a Model T that came off an improvised production line in a disused Geelong woolstore in June 1925, while work started on a factory in the nearby suburb of Norlane. In 1928 the factory switched to the Model A and was followed by the Ford V8 in 1932. In 1934 the company released a coupe utility based upon the Model A American Ford "Closed Cab Pickup Truck" that had been produced for 6 years from 1928. The local designer was Ford engineer Louis (Lewis) Bandt.〔 During the Depression, banks would not extend credit to farmers to purchase passenger cars- in the belief they were unnecessary luxuries. However, they would lend money for the purchase of "working" vehicles. The coupe utility fulfilled the need of farmers to have a workhorse which could also be used "to take the wife to church on Sunday and to the market on Monday". In 1956 the company bought a large tract of land in the northern Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, and in July 1961 announced that the new Melbourne factory would become the company headquarters.〔 On the 23 May 2013, Ford announced that its factories in Geelong and Broadmeadows would be closed down in October 2016. Approximately 1,200 employees are expected to be made redundant. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ford Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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