50 years ago, Toyota laid the cornerstone of its European success story with the start of a small-scale vehicle assembly plant in Portugal. Back in 1971, Toyota established with Salvador Caetano, its first manufacturing site in Europe, currently known as the Ovar Plant
Today, half a century later, Toyota has invested more than €10Bn in its production plants across Europe and now has a significant manufacturing footprint across the continent.
True to its philosophy of ‘build where you sell’, Toyota opened engine and car plants in the UK in the early 1990s and has since expanded to France, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia, a total of nine sites.
Its European manufacturing operations have a cumulative production of over 13 million vehicles, directly employing around 22,000 people and providing business worth over €6 billion to a network of around 400 European suppliers. Throughout this time, Toyota has always strived to be a socially responsible employer by working closely with the local communities where it operates.
All of Toyota’s best-selling European models – AYGO, Yaris, Corolla, Toyota C-HR and RAV4 – are built in Europe. Overall output has expanded to approximately 800K cars per year boosted by the recent launch of Yaris Cross.
Toyota was an early starter in producing electrified vehicles in Europe when Auris Hybrid rolled off the line at TMUK in 2010. Today, around 59% of total European volume of all vehicles sold by Toyota and Lexus in Europe are hybrids, the majority built in Europe by Europeans.
