Toyota Flees Strong Yen, Shifts Production To Europe

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The slow exodus from Japan continues. Driven out by the strong yen, which turns exports into a money loser, Toyota is building out capacities abroad. Toyota will invest €265 million ($354 million) into its existing plants in Turkey and the UK. 1,900 new jobs will be created, 400 in Turkey, 1,500 in the UK.

According to the plan,production of the C-segment hatchback Auris will be concentrated version of its European-produced C-segment vehicles (petrol, diesel and hybrid) will be consolidated at their Burnaston plant (TMUK) in Derbyshire. Currently, the Auris is produced both in Turkey and the UK.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT) in Sakarya, will not lose work, in the contrary. Along the Toyota Verso, the plant will build a new, unnamed compact sedan.

This change of production strategy is set to take place within the next two years.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Nov 24, 2011

    I find it odd that Japan hasn't devalued it's currency. Something is going on here, I'm not sure we are getting the full story on this. Something doesn't make sense to me.

    • See 3 previous
    • Sector 5 Sector 5 on Nov 25, 2011

      @unhittable curveball Well yeah specially since China's flashing its Navy might in the southern Japanese prefecture.. Washington answers with ANZUS

  • Carbiz Carbiz on Nov 25, 2011

    Didn't the Diet just spend $56B DOLLARS last year to prop up the yen? Oh, that's right - that was before the earthquake. I'm no economist (thank God!), but the hundreds of billions that are being spent to repair and upgrade after the earthquake/tsunami must be having an affect on the Japanese economy. The big multinationals must see the writing on the wall and are getting out of dodge while they still can.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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