A joint venture between General Motors Corp....

A joint venture between General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. in Melbourne, Australia, began producing its first cars this month for the Australian market.

The two auto makers each have a 50% share of the new venture, United Australian Automotive Industries Ltd. Under the agreement, they will produce identical cars that GM will market as the Nova and Toyota as the Apollo. The models are similar to the Toyota Corolla.

The GM-Toyota venture is their second. The auto makers have a similar plant in Fremont, Calif., dubbed New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. or NUMMI, which opened in 1983.

The companies said the Australian venture will eventually produce 170,000 cars a year. They said long-term goals include development of some vehicles for export to the United States, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.