Return of the Australian automotive industry? New reports call for the old Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon factories to become new electric vehicle hubs.

A new report says Australia is well positioned to become a manufacturing force again by making electric vehicles.

Australia is in an ideal position to revive car manufacturing and create a hub for high-tech electric vehicles.

That's according to a new research report titled "Australia's Recovery in Automotive Production" released this week by the Australian Institute's Carmichael Center.

Dr. Mark Dean's report states that Australia has many key elements for a successful electric vehicle industry, including rich mineral resources, a highly skilled workforce, an advanced industrial base and consumer interest.

But, as the report concludes, Australia lacks a "comprehensive, coordinating and strategic national sectoral policy."

Australia had a mass-produced car industry until Ford, Toyota and GM Holden closed their local manufacturing facilities in 2016 and 2017.

The report says that because some of these sites remained intact after the closure, such as the former Holden plant in Elizabeth, South Australia, this provides an opportunity to reinvest in electric vehicle manufacturing investments in these areas.

It highlights that around 35,000 people are still employed in the production of vehicles and car parts in Australia, which continues to be an important sector generating innovation and exports.

“The future EV industry can capitalize on the huge potential that remains in automotive supply chains, which still employ thousands of Australian workers and supply high-quality industrial products to both global markets and domestic assembly operations (including domestically produced buses, trucks, and other electric vehicles). heavy vehicle manufacturers),” the report says.

The report calls for producing EV elements such as lithium-ion batteries in Australia rather than just exporting raw materials overseas where other countries produce components.

It is unlikely that the former Toyota manufacturing site in Alton will become the new center for the production of electric vehicles.

In 1.1, Australia's milled raw lithium (spodumene) output was $2017 billion, but the report says that if we were to produce components here, that could rise to $22.1 billion.

The report cautions that a strong electric vehicle policy may not necessarily be a panacea for climate change, but could very well be "a major driver of industrial transformation, along with other positive cultural and environmental changes in Australian society."

It also recommends that the new manufacturing industry be provided with renewable energy sources.

It is unlikely that Toyota's plant in Alton, Victoria, will be used as an electric vehicle production center as the Japanese automaker has turned it into a test and light manufacturing center for its own vehicles and a hydrogen center.

The former Ford plants at Geelong and Broadmeadows are being phased out and will soon become a technology park and light industry site. The same developers who bought the Ford sites, the Pelligra Group, also own the Holden's Elizabeth site.

The former Fishermans Bend Holden site is being converted by the Victorian government into an "innovation district" and construction of a new University of Melbourne Engineering and Design campus has already been approved.