Toyota is one of the most deeply rooted non-European car manufacturers on our continent. Just in these days the Japanese brand celebrated the 50 years of European production: it all began with the assembly of the first vehicles in 1971 at the Ovar plant in Portugal, a first stage that subsequently gave rise to a constant expansion of the brand throughout the continent. The result of this expansion is that Toyota matters today nine European factories, with about 800,000 cars produced every year and with a production that currently exceeds 13 million vehicles.
To give life to a European acceleration of this size, Toyota has invested more in these 50 years 10 billion euros in its production facilities located on our continent, thus remaining faithful to the philosophy “produce where you sell”. We recall precisely that the Japanese carmaker opened manufacturing plants for engines and cars in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s and has since expanded into France, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia, with its European manufacturing activities that have achieved a cumulative production of over 13 million vehicles, directly employing around 22,000 people and generating a turnover of over 6 billion euros for a network of around 400 European suppliers. Numbers that Toyota tends to reiterate every time to make it clear how much its presence in our continent is rooted and well established.
It is no coincidence that everyone the best-selling European Toyota models, therefore Aygo, Yaris, Corolla, C-HR and RAV4 are built in Europe. “We are proud to have passed this milestone. More than two out of three vehicles we sell in Europe are produced here and this also represents a significant contribution in terms of direct employment – commented Marvin Cooke, Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Europe – Also, we are reducing ours environmental impact thanks to the local production of a large number of electrified vehicles, constantly achieving our CO2 targets on the European fleet ”.