Toyota’s cumulative production in Europe region reaches 9 million vehicles

Many Toyota drivers in Europe may not be aware of it, but there is a good chance that their Toyota was built in Europe. In fact, today, two out of three vehicles sold on the continent are made by Toyota employees in one of the six vehicle plants and three powertrain plants located in Portugal, the UK, Turkey, France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Cumulative European production will reach nine million vehicles this week.

Didier Leroy, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe recently announced the milestone at the Paris Motor Show, currently open in the French capital: “Toyota Europe is celebrating this month a new milestone with the production of its 9,000,000th car in Europe. And I am happy to say, that we do so in excellent health,” referring to the strong profit results posted in the past fiscal year by Toyota’s Europe region and three consecutive years of sales growth for the company on the continent, with plans to increase sales further in calendar year 2014.

“At Toyota, we have a long tradition of building locally what we sell locally. Recently, we have also expanded our exports outside Europe based on the competitiveness of our European operations. We are committed to keeping production in Europe by bringing technology like hybrid and management innovations that enable us to continuously make our manufacturing plants globally competitive,” added Leroy.
European manufacturing started back in 1971 with the establishment of the first plant - Toyota Caetano Portugal S.A. where the very first European-made Corolla was produced.

Today, 43 years later, nine European manufacturing plants located in seven European countries, representing an investment of more than 8 billion euros, are producing an extensive range of vehicles for European customers as well as some exports to the US market:

• Toyota Caetano Portugal S.A. started production in 1971 and is currently producing the Toyota Dyna commercial vehicle.
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing United Kingdom, which started production in 1992, is manufacturing the Avensis sedan & wagon, the Toyota Auris hatchback and the Auris Touring Sports including all Auris with hybrid technology at its Burnaston plant in Derbyshire. TMUK also produces 1.6L and 1.8L VVT-i engines, and assembles the hybrid engines at its Deeside plant in North Wales.
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey started production in 1994 and is producing the Corolla and Verso models.
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing France started production in 2001 and is producing the third generation Yaris alongside the Yaris Hybrid. From 2013 it started building the Yaris for the North American market.
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland started production in 2002, and is producing 1.0-litre gasoline engines for AYGO and Yaris and manual transmissions for Auris, Avensis, Verso, Corolla and AYGO.
• Having started its production in 2005, Toyota Motor Industries Poland is making 2.0 and 2,2-litre D-4D diesel engines for Avensis, the Auris range, Verso, RAV4 and 1.4-litre D-4D diesel engines for Yaris, the Auris range, and Corolla.
• Producing since 2005, the joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroën, Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile Czech plant is manufacturing the new Toyota AYGO, launched earlier this year.
• Toyota Motor Russia started production in 2007 in Saint-Petersburg and is producing the Camry. This year it will add stamping and plastics production. TMR Saint-Petersburg is also planning to start production of a second model, the Toyota RAV4, in 2016.

“Looking ahead,” Didier Leroy continued, “we have every reason to remain optimistic. With the recent launch of the new generation Aygo and Yaris we have the youngest compact offer in the market. Sales of these European-built models just started and we are very confident that they will reinforce our position in the A- and B-segments and with that, the foundation of our manufacturing operations in the Europe region.”

Indeed, European design has gained more autonomy from Japan and new models are tailored for the taste of European customers – new designs are highly distinctive, edgy and eye-catching like the new generation AYGO, the new Yaris, or the CH-R Concept revealed in Paris earlier this month.

With Toyota's Global Vision, operations in Europe will be taking up an increasingly larger role as global planning centre to define the future generations of cars in the essential European A, B and C segments.

• Current Toyota’s contribution to employment in Europe is around 20,000 people employed directly by Toyota and its affiliates – the figure is around 94,000 including those employed in the retailer network.
• Investments to date in Europe exceed EUR 8 billion.
• Toyota’s network of about 400 suppliers in Europe is sourcing parts from more than 600 manufacturing sites in the region, further contributing to the European economy.
• Today, around 20 percent of all vehicles sold by Toyota and Lexus in Europe are hybrids, the majority of which are built in Europe. In 2013, 105,000 of the 156,000 hybrids sold by the group were built at TMMF (Yaris) and TMUK (Auris and Auris Touring Sports). Year-to-date, European hybrid sales have already reached more than 131,000 vehicles.

Photograph: Engine production at Toyota Motor Industries Poland.