23% increase in engine production at Deeside Toyota in 2017 boosted by petrol-electric hybrid sales

Engine production at Toyota Deeside increased by over 23% in 2017 due inpart to the popularity of carmakers petrol-electric hybrid vehicles.

New car sales rose by 5.5% in 2017 with 101,692 new Toyota cars were sold to UK customers, giving the company a four % share of the market.

The Engine plant based in Deeside produces petrol and petrol hybrid engines both for the Derby based car plant, and also for Toyota plants in Turkey, South Africa, Japan and machined components for Brazil.

Production increased from 239,000 to 294,000 engines and from 282,000 engine sets to 337,000 in 2017.

This was powered by increased car sales especially of the C-HR model, which is a Hybrid Electric vehicle and is fitted with a Deeside hybrid engine; and also by an increasing demand for petrol and hybrid electric powertrains in other Toyota models.

Sales of hybrid models increased by 40% year-on-year. The new Toyota C-HR crossover made a significant impact during its first full year of sales with almost 15,000 registrations – more than 10,000 of these being the hybrid version.

In order to meet the high level of demand, in 2017 the Deeside engine plant moved to 3 shift production on its Casting and Machining lines, which involved recruiting and training over 70 new team members.

Jim Crosbie: Deputy Managing Director TMUK said:

“The last 12 months has seen a significant increase in demand for our hybrid engines reflecting customers’ desire for cleaner more efficient engines. It has been good news for our plant and I am very pleased that we have been able to create more jobs in this area.

Our members have shown their flexibility and determination to build reliable engines at high volume and this will continue into the future”

In Europe Toyota has achieved record sales of Hybrid Electric vehicles with 406,000, 38% of total vehicles, sold in 2017.

In the UK petrol-electric hybrid contributed to Toyota reaching a record low in CO2 emissions of their UK car range. Toyota passenger cars have reduced to an average of 100g/km for the past year.

Mark Roden, Toyota GB Director of Operations, said:

“Not so long ago 100g/km was the benchmark manufacturers strived to achieve with their ‘cleanest’ model. Now Toyota has reached that level as an average for its entire model range, including its conventional petrol and diesel engine models.”