Mitsubishi Motors employee is consoled by a fellow Adelaide workmate in January

Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited will close its Adelaide assembly plant in mid-2008 to end 27 years of car production in Australia, the company's national chief executive Rob McEniry announced recently. The Japanese automotive giant, which employs 930 workers at its Tonsley Park manufacturing plant, announced operations had become commercially unsustainable. In 2007, production had slowed to a virtual standstill of just 35 vehicles a day due to sluggish sales, taking the plant's accumulated losses to more than $1.5 billion over the last decade. Mitsubishi Motors Australia has blamed the closure on poorer than expected sales of the 380 sedan, a locally developed replacement for the Magna and the car once regarded as the saviour of the Adelaide manufacturing operation. A spokesman for Mitsubishi headquarters in Tokyo, Kai Inada, said the company could not see any recovery for larger cars like the 380 and the high Australian dollar had significantly increased production costs. "The reality is we can make cars more cheaply elsewhere," Mr Inada said.