Vehicle parts researched, designed and made in Australia are on track to overtake wool, iron ore and wheat as export earners within seven years if current industry growth rates are sustained, parliamentarians were told in Canberra today.
Last year automotive parts earned $860 million a 43 per cent leap on the previous year and should pass the $1 billion milestone in1997. By 2005 components would bring $3 billion a year, according to CSIRO's Mr David Lamb, Chief Executive of the Australian Automotive Technology Centre.
"Car buyers in the future want safer, less polluting cars and they don't want to pay more for them," Mr Lamb said at a National Science Briefing in Federal Parliament.
"Our challenge is to provide the technologies that meet these needs. I don't know of any other area of such promise and with such positive implications for employment growth."
Mr Lamb said car makers had moved away from the old concept of designing cars "from the outside in" and then seeking the cheapest source of parts. Today the trend was to specify what the system must do and let specialist parts suppliers research and design the best quality component.
Australia was becoming a major player in this global game with high-tech parts made from ultra-light and strong modern materials, using world leading-edge metallurgy.
An example of growing local expertise is the Australian Concept Car a "virtual" vehicle designed to showcase the very best and most efficient technologies the industry can offer.
Australia also had the technology to become a key player in the next generation of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Plans for an Australian HEV will be unveiled shortly, and may include technologies such as CSIRO's revolutionary wheel motor and supercapacitor.
Supercapacitors are compact electrical storage units that can be used to start motors, operate brakes and steering, control electronic suspension and load levelling and operate doors, windows and locks. They are cheap, require no maintenance and have no replacement or capital costs. They are being developed by CSIRO and cap-XX Pty Ltd.
The Managing Director of Robert Bosch Australia, Dr Kurt Liedke, said that while it was very hard for Australia to compete against Asia and Eastern Europe in the car industry purely in labour costs, it could certainly compete in terms of research and development.
Australia had a strong scientific, engineering, educational political and economic environment in which research-based industries could grow. Robert Bosch Australia planned to export $200m worth of components to Germany by 2000 and $300m worth by 2005.
Dr Liedke stressed the importance of the Australian Government continuing to support R&D activities and export programs to offset the cost disadvantages faced by Australia as a result of its geographic location and small population.
The Director of the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers, Mr Malcolm Stewart, told the Briefing that over the next nine years his members expected to invest $1.7B in core research and development, with product and process improvement at least double that amount.
"Research and development pays off. An innovative new approach to either improving product utility or reducing cost can be rewarded with business exceeding the total Australian market," he said.
"Cost and quality are no longer enough - there is always someone who can or will match you. It is the competitive advantage that firms have in proprietary product and process technology that will determine the fate of firms in the automotive industry.
We support every and any facility that drives investment in research and development as critical to this industry's future," Mr Stewart said.
More information:
David Lamb, CSIRO 03 487 9287 mobile 0417 320 230 dgl@mimir.dmt.oz
Kurt Liedke, Robert Bosch Australia mobile 0412 122102
Malcolm Stewart, FAPM 02 6247 4177