Toyota will build the GR Corolla hot hatch in the UK from next year, in a bid to cater to increasing demand.
Confirming this week’s report from Reuters, it said it had chosen the Corolla plant in Burnaston (Derbyshire) to boost GR Corolla production, and that preparations had been under way since last year.
It will make the hot Corolla the first GR product built outside Japan. Toyota said Burnaston – Toyota Manufacturing UK – was a natural fit because of the capability of the factory and its staff. It also pointed to the “deep motorsport culture” in the UK aligning with its GR (Gazoo Racing) sub-brand.
The business case was almost certainly swayed by the fact Burnaston also has a large and ready supply of Corolla bodies and ancillaries, too.
Toyota added that the decision comes as part of a wider production overhaul aimed at accelerating production and customer delivery times. Indeed, GR Corolla buyers in the US have typically faced long wait lists and dealer-added cost mark-ups since the car’s launch in 2022, owing to strong demand for the model.
Production and investment levels will be announced by the firm at a later date, but Reuters previously said it would cost £41 million to add the new line at Burnaston, and that it would give a capacity of some 10,000 cars annually.
The publication added that Toyota’s Motomachi plant in Japan – the so-called GR Factory, responsible for output of the GR Corolla, GR Yaris and GR86 – is currently at full capacity. It assembled 25,000 cars last year, of which around a third were Corollas.
As well as boosting overall output of GR Corollas, the addition of UK production will surely give Toyota additional flexibility to build other models at Motomachi. It could ramp up GR Yaris production, for example, or add entirely new models at the factory.