Dolny Śląsk (Lower Silesia), the heart of Poland’s automotive sector, will be home to Toyota’s new production line for hybrid cars. The new Toyota plant, which will be located in Wałbrzych, is the first of its kind outside of Asia.
“In 2000, with the premiere of the first hybrid model, we paved the way to electrification of cars in Europe,” Johan van Zyl, president of Toyota Motor Europe, told Business Insider Polska. “Currently, almost every second car leaving our showrooms is a hybrid car, and the sale of hybrids is constantly growing. Hybrid technology is our main distinguishing feature. This is part of our ambitious global electromobility strategy, which assumes that by 2030 we will achieve annual sales in the world of more than 5.5 million electrified cars, including one million zero-emission cars. The steady growth of hybrid sales in Europe allows us to increase the local production of components for hybrid drives.”
“Given the market realities of electric cars, including range, infrastructure, charging time, and above all prices, hybrids will represent a viable and accessible alternative for conventional cars in coming years. Hybrid cars are an excellent compromise allowing for a significant reduction of nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions, reducing the risk of morbidity including for lung diseases,” said Jacek Pawlak, president of Toyota Motor Poland and Toyota Central Europe.
According to research from Exact Systems (a leading provider of quality control solutions for the automotive industry) Polish automotive plants are no longer purely assembly plants: they have started to play a vital role in the development of new technologies. Exact Systems expects Poland to catch up with the most advanced automotive markets within five years.
Toyota’s investment in Poland will amount to over 4.5 billion zloty once all projects are completed. Part of the company’s strategy is to keep production close to their sales markets, provided that it proves to be competitive.
“The introduction of hybrid transmission technology to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland as the first factory outside Asia is a great honour for us and an expression of the huge trust that Polish authorities have for Polish factories. This shows the potential of our employees and the competitiveness of the entire organisation,” explains Eiji Takeichi, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland.
Back in 2018, Toyota’s two Polish factories, Wałbrzych and Jelcz-Laskowice, merged into one enterprise to strengthen their production capacity. As a result, Toyota has been able to service its car assembly plants in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, France, Turkey, Russia, South Africa and Japan with parts produced at its Polish facilities.
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Photo: Toyota
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