Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd issued the following press release:
Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd. (TMUK) today celebrated its 10th anniversary of car and engine production in the U.K. Over the last ten years, some 1.32 million Toyota cars have been built in Burnaston and about 1.1 million engines have been produced in Deeside. TMUK currently employs about 4,370 people and will produce an estimated 220,000 Toyota Avensis and Corollas and about 330,000 VVT-i petrol engines in 2002. Toyota's manufacturing operations in the U.K. represent a total investment of £1.7 billion (’2.64 billion*) so far.
It's ten years to the day since the first Toyota Carina E model drove off the assembly line in Burnaston on December 16, 1992 - marking the beginning of Toyota's manufacturing operations in Europe. Since then, Toyota has continued to invest in the expansion of its production capacity in the region, and is now producing all of its core models - the Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla and the Toyota Avensis - in Europe.
By 2004, Toyota will be in a position to build over 500,000 vehicles, 830,000 engines and 550,000 transmissions per year in Europe, at its production sites in France, the U.K., Poland and Turkey. In addition, Toyota and PSA Peugeot Citro’n will start manufacturing 300,000 entry-level small passenger cars in the Czech Republic starting in 2005, of which 100,000 will be for the Toyota brand.
The 10th anniversary celebrations of TMUK were marked by the donation of two brand-new cars built at TMUK to two local children's charities.
In the January - November period of this year, Toyota sold 117,238 units in the U.K., or a 6% increase over the same period last year, and has a 4.4% market share. During the same period, Toyota sold 709,898 units in Europe, a 14% rise over 2001, and has a market share of 4.4%.
