$20m Lara boost

Lara will host the Asia Pac-ific region’s leading automotive testing facility as part of a $20 million Ford investment, acc-ording to a Geelong councillor.
Shane Dowling welcomed the Lara facility as one of thee components of the Advanced Centre for Automotive Re-search and Testing, a collaborative project between Ford and University of Melbourne.
Cr Dowling said the Lara component would be the largest of the three Ford centres.
“The new facility at Lara will significantly surpass the technical capability of any competitive facility in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.
The Lara facility would be part of Ford’s existing providing ground near the town.
Ford Australia president Tom Gorman, University of Melb-ourne research vice-chancellor Professor John McKenzie and state Innovation Minister John Brumby announced the project at Lara on Wednesday.
Taxpayers put $6.7 million into the project through a State Government grant.
The testing centre follows Ford announcing a $1.8 billion investment in Victoria earlier this year.
Mr Brumby said the largest component of the Lara facility would be an Environmental Laboratory Testing Facility able to simulate “extreme” weather.
Ford would make the facility open to other car manufacturers.
Mr Brumby said the Lara facility was “expected to attract strong interest” from Ford rivals.
The project could help pave the way to vehicles with lower emission levels and less thirst for fuel.
“With petrol prices increasing and regulations around gas emissions becoming tighter, the automotive industry is increasingly turning to innovation to source cheaper, cleaner and more efficient sources of fuel,” Mr Brumby said.
“The new $19 million ACART will provide research facilities to develop low-emission technologies that will hopefully see ground-breaking research developed right here in Victoria.”