Commitment to Europe and strong hybrid demand drive transformation of Toyota plants in Poland
Commitment to Europe and strong hybrid demand drive transformation of Toyota plants in Poland
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland (TMMP) has inaugurated its second production line for the latest generation of the 1.5L TNGA engine which, together with the electric hybrid transmission also produced at TMMP, powers the Toyota Yaris, the Car of the Year 2021 as well as the Yaris Cross. This is the sixth production line for electric hybrid drives that Toyota has installed in Poland in the last three years.
Toyota started localising production of electrified mobility drives in 2018, lining off the 1.8L e-CVT transaxle for the 4th generation hybrid powertrain at TMMP’s Wałbrzych site. Three years on, with a strong focus on the future of electrified mobility, Toyota continued to invest in the European production of electrification powertrain components, as well as the latest generation of engines built on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA).
Employment at TMMP is now 3,300 on two production sites in Walbrzych and Jecz-Lazkowice, Lower Silesia, near the German and Czech borders.
This transformation is driven by two factors: Toyota’s commitment to carbon neutrality and increasing customer demand for affordable carbon-reducing hybrid vehicles.
Towards the goal of zero-emission mobility, Toyota is preparing a full line-up of battery electric vehicles. In Europe, the company aims to be ready to reduce tailpipe emissions of its new car sales by 100% by 2035, provided the charging or refuelling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles is available and customer demand follows. In the meantime, hybrid vehicles can reduce CO2 emissions significantly, and indeed, hybrid sales have been very strong for Toyota and Lexus across Europe – enabling Toyota Motor Europe to increase its market share whilst posting industry-leading fleet CO2 reduction.
We have continued to refine our hybrid technology and offer it in an ever-wider range of vehicles at accessible prices. As a result, Toyota leads in CO2 reductions, and Toyota customers have been able to start their carbon reduction journey without delay.
Marvin Cooke, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Europe
In the last three years, while TMMP advanced its transformation, Toyota’s hybrid electric sales achieved remarkable growth – the hybrid mix increased from 30% to 60% in total European sales, and reached 70% in the Western Europe. Toyota’s hybrid growth in Poland has been equally strong – both hybrid sales volume and hybrid mix doubled, and the hybrid mix stands at over 55% today. The hybrid market in Poland has almost tripled, and almost 70% of Polish hybrid customers have picked a Toyota hybrid vehicle so far this year.
We are proud to have made such a significant contribution to the wider adoption of electrified mobility in Poland and Europe – thereby reducing CO2 emissions. But we will not stop there. We will further localise production of hybrid components by adding a second motor-generator to our product line-up next year. We will also continue modernizing our production lines to prepare for the next-generation hybrid.
Marvin Cooke, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Europe
Globally, Toyota sold more than 18 million hybrid electrified vehicles 1997 to July 2021, realising equivalent of CO2 emissions reduction by 5.5 million battery electric vehicles.
TNGA architecture
Toyota New Global Architecture is the global architecture in which all new Toyota models are currently designed. This platform stands for common principles for the construction of individual chassis types and bodies, as well as drivetrains for various models. Its characteristic feature is a lower center of gravity and a stiffer car body, which translates into a high level of passive safety and greater driving comfort. From the production side, TNGA means designing automated production lines, and thus higher efficiency, a modular structure of the line enabling the production of various types of components or drives on one production line, as well as better work ergonomics and lower environmental impact.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland (TMMP)
TMMP has two plants located in Lower Silesia. The factory in Wałbrzych produces hybrid electric transmissions for low-emission hybrid cars with a 1.8-liter engine, 1-liter gasoline engines as well as manual and semi-automatic transmissions. Its current annual production capacity is 525,000 hybrid electric transmissions, 413,000 engines and 633,000 transmissions. The plant in Jelcz-Laskowice produces 1.5 L and 2.0 L TNGA gasoline engines, and its production capacity is 312 thousand engines per year. TMMP factories supply assembly plants of Toyota cars and the PSA Group and Lotus companies, operated by European companies in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, France, Turkey and Russia, and outside Europe: in South Africa and Japan.