Local manufacturer Premcar has said that Australia’s local manufacturing scene is “thriving” as the company gears up for the new Nissan Navara Warrior program, a joint-venture between Premcar and Nissan.
Despite the last of Australia’s OEM manufacturers closing their doors in 2017, Premcar says that its Warrior program proves there is currently a new skills boom in Victoria. Small and “more agile” companies have emerged, according to Premcar, which has secured an arrangement with Nissan to re-engineer vehicles for Australian conditions.
The latest example of this is Premcar’s Warrior program, described as the “world’s toughest Navara”. It will soon hit the market as the new Navara Pro-4X Warrior, replacing the outgoing N-TREK Warrior. Details of the new Navara Warrior program are yet to be outlined, but Premcar says the project is the culmination of 12 months of hard work that will define the program “for years to come”. Mark Doody, Premcar’s principal engineer, said:
“Our workforce is truly global in its outlook,” Doody says. “When Holden and Ford were downsizing, Premcar saw it as an opportunity to bring in some new blood, with new ideas. In the rest of the world, there can be movement of engineers across car companies, but in Australia, that didn’t happen quite so much. I think having that experience from different manufacturers and different backgrounds helps to expand the capability and quality of our workforce.”
The new model is expected to carry over a similar personality to the outgoing model, with hardcore equipment such as big tyres and bespoke wheels, recovery points, special bumper bars, added underbody protection, and an enhanced interior.
We reported just a week ago that Premcar had launched a new recruitment drive to find 35 engineering and manufacturing specialists to join its OEM program in Epping, Melbourne. The increased staff will help churn out the remanufacturing required for the Navara Warrior.
