National Policy, Global Giants
How Australia Built and Lost its Automotive Industry

Describes the lifecycle of an auto-industry - its birth, growth, functioning and death - and the shifting relationship it has with the government that supports it.

John Wormald (Author), Kim Rennick (Author)

9781108486064, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 January 2020

350 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.67 kg

'A formidable command of the industry, its makeup and its history born of the authors' having lived and breathed it for decades. I discovered things I didn't know about the period I wrote a Ph.D. about.' Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics and architect of the Button Plan

What can we tell about the future of automobiles and the industries that make them by examining their past? Wormald and Rennick trace the history of powered land transport, the rise and fall of the railways, the spectacular rise of the automobile, and what might come next. Delving into the mighty and complex automotive industry, following the growth of the markets and production, this book illustrates the globalization of vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers, giving form to the development of the industry's business model. A key factor in an auto-industry's successes and failures is the often-difficult relationship it has with government, which varies in nature from country to country. As an illustrative case, Wormald and Rennick  present and analyse the entire lifecycle of Australia's automotive history – including its birth, growth, functioning and death - and its shifting relationship with the government that supported it.

1. The triumph of the automobile – and its incipient decline
2. From revolution to revolution: a changing automotive industry
3. The vehicle manufacturers: a controlling global semi-oligarchy
4. A highly-disciplined global partnership: the components suppliers
5. Tense relationships: the automotive industry and government
6. Enthusiastic adopters: growth and change in the Australian car market
7. The end of a life cycle: the rise and fall of the Australian light vehicle industry
8. Distant children: Australian vehicle manufacturers and their foreign parents
9. The Australian component suppliers: doomed by being so sub-scale
10. From consistency to contradiction: Australian government automotive policy
11. Government support policy and sectoral analysis: lessons learned.

Subject Areas: Automotive technology & trades [TRC], Industrial relations [KNXB], Business strategy [KJC]