Toyota is to start producing the new Auris with Hybrid Synergy Drive at its UK plant.
The Toyota plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, is to produce the new Auris with HSD, which will be launched in 32 countries across Europe, with deliveries to the first customers starting in July.
Speaking at today’s launch, Didier Leroy, president of Toyota Motor Europe, said: “A new chapter is opening today as Britain, a traditional origin of industrial innovation, becomes home to the manufacture of the first full hybrid vehicle for Europe.”
Katsunori Kojima, managing director of Toyota Motors UK, added: “As a model sustainable plant for Toyota in Europe we will truly be an eco plant with eco-minded people building eco cars.”
Sustainable mobility
The new Auris with HSD is a five-door hatchback. According to Toyota, it is equipped with the first and only full hybrid powertrain in the C-Segment and embodies Toyota’s environmental lead in the drive towards sustainable mobility.
– The Auris with HSD will feature two electric motors and a 1.8 litre VVT-i petrol engine
– It will return fuel consumption figures of 3.8l/100km
– It will have CO2 emissions of 89g/km.
Earlier this month, as part of a visit to Japan, Minister Eamon Ryan TD met electric vehicle manufacturers Mitsubishi, Toyota and Nissan to discuss the future delivery of electric vehicles to the Irish market. The Minister made some comments on these visits as part of his speech to the Nikkei Summit. Click here.
Toyota launched its hybrid vehicle Prius in Japan in 1997 and in Europe in 2000.
The company said today’s launch of the Auris with HSD is a major step in the deployment of Toyota’s full hybrid drive technology across its entire model range by the earliest timing possible in the 2020s.
The new Auris with HSD will be assembled at Toyota Manufacturing UK’s [TMUK] Burnaston Plant, in Derbyshire, while the Hybrid Synergy Drive system’s efficient 1.8-litre petrol engine will be built in Deeside, North Wales.
The Auris with HSD will be built in the same production line as the petrol and diesel Auris, alongside Avensis.
New quality testing procedures have been established at Deeside and Burnaston, covering areas specific to hybrid operation.
