The manufacturing of Toyota Yaris cars has commenced in the Toyota’s Motor Manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic (TMMCZ). The model is being produced in the manufacturing plant in Kolinis. The Yaris was the Car of the Year 2021, with the TMMCZ plant becoming the second in Europe to produce the Yaris, which is the best-selling car in the region. The other European plant manufacturing the Yaris is the Toyota Motor Manufacturing facility in France (TMMF).
The TMMCZ plant used to be known as TPCA, and full ownership of it was given to Toyota Motor Europe in January, with the Yaris being the second model being produced at the plant. This is a landmark achievement for the plant. The plant has gulped up over £180M in investments from Toyota, leading to its transformation towards manufacturing A and B segment producing vehicles using Toyota’s New Global Architecture TNGA B platform.
As a result of Toyota’s investments, the capacity of the Czech plant has been expanded, and the plant now reportedly runs three shifts. These updates are designed to increase production of the Yaris and to unveil Toyota’s new Aygo X.
The investment is expected to drive the production of hybrid cars at the plant, a crucial development necessitated by the demand for hybrid electric vehicles in Europe. 80% of Yaris sales in Europe are hybrids. However, the electric powertrains that power the hybrid cars produced at Toyota’s two European plants are produced at the company’s Poland plant.
According to Marvin Cooke, an Executive Vice President of Manufacturing at Toyota Motor Europe, the move is a great one for the plant because it allows for the production of the company’s best-selling car in Europe. This will help Toyota achieve its goal of selling 1.5 million vehicles in Europe by 2025. Cooke believes the Yaris is the key to achieving this goal.
No fewer than 2,630 people have purchased a Toyota Yaris in the Czech Republic, with 2,398 units of the car being sold last year alone. The Yaris is one of the best selling cars in the small car division, though it is expected to receive some in-house competition from Toyota’s new Aygo X, which will be produced in Cologne in 2022.
Production of the Yaris was scheduled to commence in August, but those plans were disrupted by the pandemic. The timeline was shifted back a couple of months. Now that production has commenced, the model is the first to use the new TNGA platform, and its engine is a new 1.5 HP 1.5 Dynamic Force three-cylinder petrol engine coupled with a 116-HP hybrid Hybrid Dynamic Force version engine. This powertrain provides more power while cutting down on gas consumption and providing improved agility for users.
It costs 350,000 crowns to purchase a Toyota Yaris in the Czech Republic, though the hybrid costs CZK 460,000. It costs a bit more than rival vehicles from Volkswagen, Peugeot, and Citroen. The TMMC is the largest employer in the Kolin region where it operates.