Toyota’s car plant in Valenciennes, France, on Friday manufactured its 200,000th Yaris [Vitz, Echo]. The Valenciennes plant has been making Yaris models since January 31, 2001, and increased capacity to 184,000 units last November. Now, one Toyota Yaris is produced every minute at the Valenciennes plant. The Yaris has been an ongoing sales success in Europe and, since its launch in 1999, more than 750,000 units have been sold to date in the region.
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The three best-selling European markets for the Yaris in 2002 were Italy (about 60,000 units sold), the UK (about 31,300 units) and France (more than 25,000 units sold). A total of almost 210,000 were sold in Europe in 2002.
By 2004, Toyota will be able to build over 500,000 vehicles, 830,000 engines and 550,000 transmissions per year in Europe, at its production sites in France, the UK, Poland and Turkey. In addition, Toyota and PSA Peugeot Citroën will start manufacturing 300,000 entry-level small passenger cars in the Czech Republic starting in 2005, of which 100,000 will be for Toyota.
