The Holden production line in northern Adelaide will shut down for the last time today, ending 69 years of Australian-made car manufacturing.

The Elizabeth plant opened in 1963 and at its peak, between June 2003 and July 2005, produced 780 vehicles per day, including the VY Commodore, the Adventra, Crewman, Caprice and Statesman.

In its final year it has produced 175 cars a day, with production to finish about 11:00am for a private ceremony involving staff.

A press conference will then be held by the managing director before workers are transported to Adelaide Oval for a farewell celebration about lunchtime.

Holden enthusiasts have already started lining the street outside the Elizabeth factory.

This includes Shilane Quist, who brought her Holden Torana because she wanted to show support for the workers and their families.

"I'm just proud that Elizabeth has got something like this, and it's very sad it'll be closing today," she said.

Robert McPharlin parked his ute outside the Elizabeth factory to say "thank you to the workers [and] show that I like their product".

"It's more about the celebration of an icon that's coming to an end," he said.

"It's a celebration of the workers that actually built these fabulous cars. It's just really sad that it has to all end."

Holden said the decommissioning of the factory was expected to take about 18 months.

It said it was time to "celebrate with Australia, not commiserate".

It is the last day of work for up to 950 staff members at Elizabeth, with 800 having left since the company's 2013 announcement that it was withdrawing from Australian manufacturing.

The closure has also affected thousands of people employed by component suppliers to Holden — businesses that have had to downsize, cut staff, or close altogether.

Some 700 Holden employees will remain in Melbourne, including more than 300 designers, engineers and technical staff, who will continue to design cars for the Australian market.

Holden expects some 230 dealerships — the second highest number behind Toyota — to continue selling their vehicles.

More than a third of its "future product portfolio" will now come from Europe, with vehicles also to be sourced from North America and Asia.

It said there were about 10,000 people who would remain directly employed through Holden and its dealership network.

Commodores among factory's top-selling models

The world's second-oldest transportation company started as an Adelaide saddlery in 1856 and began producing all-Australian motor cars at Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne in 1948.

The first fully-built model was produced at Elizabeth in 1965 when the HD Holden rolled off the production line.

Since 1994, General Motors Holden have manufactured all of its Australian-built vehicles in Adelaide, although engine's were produced at Fisherman's Bend until November 2016.

The company's peak export year was 2005 when 60,518 Holdens were sent to 10 countries, including the Middle East and North America.

It achieved its largest market share of national sales at 50.3 per cent in 1958.

Elizabeth was home to Australia's last road-vehicle manufacturing plant after Toyota closed its Camry factory at Altona, Victoria, earlier this month.

Oh I thought the car industry closed because we're all buying Mazdas, VWs, Hyundai etc etc etc and not Fords or Holdens.

Electric car maker angry over import deal

AUSTRALIA'S leading electric car manufacturer has blasted the federal government for choosing an imported model to be Australia's first electric trial fleet.

In June, the federal Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, announced that the government would be buying 40 imported Mitsubishi i-Miev electric vehicles as a way of encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles.

But Castlemaine-based Blade Electric Vehicles said the decision was inexplicable given that its car, the Blade Electron, was better, cheaper, and had been developed with federal government funding.

''We cannot understand why Mr Albanese has chosen to exclude the Electron,'' said Ross Blade, director of BEV.

''The federal government has spent over $100,000 of taxpayers' money on the development of the Blade Electron through the COMET (Commercialising Emerging Technologies) program. Despite the Electron meeting Australia's design standards, the federal government has chosen instead to lease a foreign product at nearly double the cost.''

Mr Blade said that Mitsubishi was leasing the i-Miev for $1740 a month for a total cost over three years of $62,640. This compared with $900 a month for the Electron, for a total cost over three years of $48,000.

Mr Blade said the Electron was a bigger car with superior performance to the i-Miev and, more importantly, could be plugged into a regular power point for recharging.

However, a spokesman for Mr Albanese, Geoff Sinclair, said the government did not choose the Blade Electron because it was not a mass-produced car and did not meet two Australian design standards, although he could not say which ones.

Mr Blade said that if the Australian government was not going to buy a locally made electric car, it stood little chance of being mass produced.


''In terms of our vehicle being mass produced, the fact of the matter is that if the Australian government is not going to buy them, then how can they be mass produced?

''It's a chicken and egg thing.''

MOS

HI ALL

The car industry never was a win situation but! it certainly produced thousands of subsidiary jobs?