King Philippe was welcomed on his arrival at TME Technical Centre by His Excellency, Masahiro Mikami, Japanese Ambassador to Belgium and Yoshihiro Nakata, President & CEO of TME. The King’s visit started with an explanation of Toyota’s global multi-path strategy offering a wide range of zero and low emission technologies to help decarbonise mobility. The tour of the facility included visiting TME’s Hydrogen Factory where hydrogen fuel cell modules are assembled and integrated into a diverse range of zero emission mobility applications ranging from cars to trucks and maritime products.

The King was chauffeured across the premises to the Design Centre in Toyota’s APM (Accessible People Mover), a wheelchair accessible battery electric vehicle designed at TME to transport athletes and others at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this summer.  At TME’s Design Centre, the King was shown how best-selling vehicles such as the new Toyota C-HR are designed and developed in Belgium for the European market and was invited to test his skills in the driving simulator.

King Philippe finished his tour of the Technical Centre by meeting a senior group of BJA and TME members to celebrate the close collaboration of Belgium and Japan with a traditional Japanese kanpai!.

*Toyota in Belgium employs around 6,000 people at its Head Office, Technical Centre, European Parts Centre and its National Marketing & Sales Company (Inchcape) and has cumulatively invested approximately €2.2 billion. Beyond its commercial activities, the company is active in wider society working with Serve the City and tree planting in Zaventem.

Upon legal completion of the agreement, TFM will take 100% ownership of IFS. As one of the UK’s largest and best-known independent fleet management and leasing specialists, IFS offers a complete portfolio of fleet management and funding solutions for passenger and commercial vehicles across corporate, public, not-for-profit and SME sectors. IFS is headquartered in Portsmouth, UK.

TFM is a joint venture between Toyota Financial Services Corporation, headquartered in Nagoya, Japan, and Toyota Motor Europe, based in Brussels, Belgium. The company was established in 2018 with the aim of developing a European base for future mobility services by providing full service leasing products. TFM has subsidiaries in France, Italy and Spain.

Starting this year, the Burnaston facility will be progressively upgraded with new equipment, technologies and systems. This will enable production of vehicles on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform.

The investment programme also includes up to £21.3 million support^*1 from the UK Government for training, research and development and further enhancements of the plant’s environmental performance.

Announcing the investment, Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe, said:

“We are very focused on securing the global competitiveness of our European plants. The roll-out of TNGA manufacturing capability is part of this plan. This upgrade of TMUK is a sign of confidence in our employees and suppliers and their focus on superior quality and greater efficiency. We welcome the UK Government funding contribution for this activity.”

"Our investment demonstrates that, as a company, we are doing all we can to raise the competitiveness of our Burnaston plant in Derbyshire. Continued tariff-and-barrier free market access between the UK and Europe that is predictable and uncomplicated will be vital for future success".

Toyota has launched a global programme to upgrade its manufacturing sites to produce TNGA-based vehicles. By 2020, the majority of Toyota’s global models will be built using TNGA platforms. TNGA already underpins the new, fourth generation Prius and the all-new, Toyota C-HR crossover, which is built in Turkey, vehicles that epitomise Toyota’s commitment to build ever-better cars for our customers.

^*1 Government Funding is subject to due diligence.

The best-seller Toyota RAV4 became the second model to be produced at the Saint Petersburg plant together with the Toyota Camry, which has been made here since 2007. The Russian-made Toyota RAV4 will be produced for Russian, Kazakh and Belarus markets.

The decision to start Toyota RAV4 production at the Toyota plant in Saint Petersburg was made in 2013 following the strong sales of this vehicle in Russia. As a pioneer creating a brand new segment when first launched in 1994, the Toyota RAV4 has established a solid reputation with Russian customers since its launch in Russia in 2002. For several years, it has been not only the market leader in the C-SUV segment, but the vehicle has become one of Toyota’s best-seller across all segments in Russia.

Commenting on the start of production, Executive Manufacturing Director of "Toyota Motor" LLC. Yoshinori Matsunaga said: “This project demonstrates the confidence in the work of our employees and the recognition of their efforts. Our employees’ work is based on the fundamental principles and philosophy of Toyota at each production stage. Thorough preparation for the second model launch was carried out over the past three years, and today we are pleased to announce the beginning of a new phase in the life of our plant, as well as to offer a Toyota RAV4 of very high quality to our customers”.

The high quality of Toyota’s St Petersburg Camry is already well-known: in 2016 the car has ranked as the number 1 vehicle in D segment with the best residual value in Russia according to Autostat analytic agency. Over years Toyota Camry was repeatedly recognized as the best model in business class by annual national award “Car of the year in Russia”. The same quality mindset went into the preparation for the RAV4 launch, and about 450 training trips to Japan were organized for the plant employees.

At the end of 2015 in preparation for the start of production of the Toyota RAV4, the TMR-SP production capacity was successfully doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 vehicles a year. Investment towards this production capacity increase and the new model launch reached 9,7 billion RUR.

Thanks to this second model, recruitment of new employees is ongoing at TMR-SP. With gradual production volume increase in the next few months, around 800 new jobs will be created.

President of «Toyota Motor» LLC. Hidenori Ozaki commented: “RAV4 launch at Toyota’s plant in Saint Petersburg is a key to Toyota’s sustainable development in Russia, as well as our contribution to the regional and Russian economy. The successful implementation of our company plans to start second model production confirms our commitment to promote the development of the automotive business in Russia and to offer products which are fully in line with the needs of Russian customers. We are confident in the future success of “our” Toyota RAV4 in Russia”.