Hybrids drive Toyota UK boom

Rising demand for hybrid powered cars drove Toyota's UK production up 65 per cent in 2013, as a focus on green technology reversed years of falling output at the company's British operations.

Toyota's UK production more than halved from its 2008 peak to just 109,000 cars in 2012, but a surge in demand for hybrid vehicles will increase output to about 180,000 this year.

Cutting-edge and environmental technologies such as hybrid cars, which blend conventional oil-powered engines with rechargeable electric batteries, are at the core of a government push to sustain a recent boom in UK car manufacturing by making the country a hub for future automotive technology.

"This is a concrete example of green rebalancing," said Graeme Smith, managing director, Toyota Motor Europe. "It is a fantastic example of how electric drive is central to the UK automotive industry."

Toyota's factory near Derby was the company's first outside Japan to build hybrid cars, and four of every 10 cars produced there are hybrid-powered.

More than half of the increased output from the Derby factory this year will be accounted for by increased hybrid production.

UK-built hybrids account for about 40 per cent of all the hybrid cars Toyota sells in Europe, where the Japanese company now relies on the greener vehicles for more than a quarter of its total sales.

"Hybrids are now increasingly mainstream, driven by natural demand, not incentives," Mr Smith said in an interview, adding that he expects hybrid cars to account for almost half of Toyota UK's output next year.

Carmakers are under pressure from environmental regulators and governments to curb their emissions and invest in new, more efficient engines, while subsidies and incentives have worked to increase public interest in greener cars.

Hybrid cars work by charging a battery when the engine is not directly in use which can then power an electrical motor, cutting down fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions.

Sales of hybrids far surpass fully electric car models, where a complete dependency on a battery has put off many drivers who fear they will be constrained by a lack of driving distance and ability to recharge the car.

The surge in demand for the cars in Europe is a shot in the arm for the Derby plant, which was forced to shut its second production line after European sales crashed after the onset of the financial crisis, but will run at close to full capacity on its remaining line next year.

Toyota's choice to invest in hybrid engine and car production in the UK comes alongside Japanese rival Nissan's decision to make its Sunderland plant its European hub for the all-electric Leaf model.

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