Tim Freeman

Toyota's decision to establish a manufacturing operation in Europe was announced in 1989 and Toyota Manufacturing UK was established in December that year. There are two manufacturing plants in the UK representing a total investment in excess of £2.75 billion and currently approximately 3,000 members (including Agency) are employed. The vehicle manufacturing plant is located at Burnaston in Derbyshire, the engine manufacturing plant is located at Deeside in North Wales. The processes at Burnaston include stamping, welding, painting, plastic mouldings and assembly and at Deeside machining, assembly and aluminium casting. The first car, a Carina E, drove off the Burnaston production line on 16 December 1992. The Avensis replaced the Carina E in 1997 and in 2008 the third generation Avensis was launched. In 1998 a second model, the Corolla, was introduced and in 2001 the new generation Corolla was launched. In 2007, production of Auris, a new Toyota hatchback, started replacing Corolla. Production of the Auris Hybrid, the first full mass-produced hybrid in Europe, began in 2010. Toyota is the leading company for hybrid vehicle development, and the new Corolla with its Touring Sports variant is the future of TMUK – the first model to introduce Toyota’s dual hybrid strategy, replaced the Auris when it started to roll off our production lines in January 2019. See more at: http://www.toyotauk.com/