Toyota picks UK to make new Auris hybrid car

Britain's troubled car industry received a boost today when Toyota confirmed it would start production of a hybrid car at its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire.

Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, said it would start building its petrol-electric Auris hatchback at Burnaston from the middle of next year. The engines will be assembled at Toyota's factory in Deeside, north Wales.

It will be the first time the firm has produced a hybrid vehicle in Europe and is seen as an attempt to popularise Toyota's line of clean-energy cars outside the traditional Japanese and US markets. Toyota makes most of its hybrid models in Japan but some are made in China and the US.

Toyota sold 429,740 hybrid vehicles last year, including 285,675 Prius cars, the world's bestselling hybrid. More than 37,000 non-hybrid Auris cars – built in the UK and Turkey – have been sold in Europe since the model's introduction in spring 2007.

Today's announcement is part of a drive by Toyota's new chairman, Akio Toyoda, to wean European drivers off diesel vehicles and see off competition from Honda's Insight hybrid, the fourth bestselling car in Japan last month.

Toyota's European chief executive, Tadashi Arashima, said the firm had taken "a significant step forward in ensuring that full hybrids become more accessible to a wider range of customers. Such efforts are crucial if we are to see more low-carbon vehicles on European roads.

"Our decision to produce a full hybrid in the UK reflects both our confidence in the quality and commitment of the Toyota UK workforce and the strength of our long-standing partnership with the UK government. Today's announcement is positive for Toyota, our UK suppliers and the local communities here."

Toyota, which employs 3,560 people at Burnaston and 540 at Deeside, had cut production, working hours and pay at its UK plants in response to falling sales in Europe.

Officials welcomed the announcement as concern mounted that the UK car industry could begin to fail without urgent government help.

The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, who visited Burnaston yesterday, said: "This is a welcome and forward-looking investment in Britain from a world-class manufacturer. As part of our low-carbon industrial strategy, we set out to make Britain the best place in the world to develop low-carbon vehicles.

"These commitments, backed by the formidable skills of the UK automotive workers, enable companies like Toyota to invest with confidence in low-carbon car production in the UK. It demonstrates that the UK's car industry is already making the low-carbon transition."

MPs yesterday criticised the government for not moving quickly enough to see the car industry and its 180,000 workers safely through the recession.

The business and enterprise committee said the government had yet to provide money to struggling carmakers through its £2.3bn automotive assistance programme and should relax the criteria for loan applications to help smaller companies.

"We are profoundly disappointed that not one single penny has been advanced through the scheme," it said. "We hope that this will change rapidly."

This article first appeared on The Guardian

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