Hürriyet – The restart of Corolla production in Toyota’s Türkiye plant has placed the emerging country at the center of the world’s largest automotive manufacturer’s plans regarding Central Asia, North Africa and Central Europe markets.
“Türkiye is a global exports hub for Toyota.”, Didier Leroy, President & CEO at Toyota Motor Europe said, following the line-off of the new Corolla from the company’s Adapazari, Sakarya plant in northwestern Türkiye last week. Describing Türkiye as the ideal hub to supply the Russian, Middle Eastern, North African and Central European markets, Leroy said that Türkiye’s growing domestic market was also catching up in terms of sales with their larger markets in Europe.
“Türkiye offers many advantages in addition to its strategic bridging location between the East and the West, assuring continual commitment by Toyota as a critical manufacturing hub for our European operations.” Leroy remarked.
The new Corolla is considered as the cornerstone of Toyota’s new strategy in reclaiming its market share in the highly competitive European market. Toyota Türkiye currently manufactures the new Corolla and revamped Verso at a rate of 180,000 vehicles a year, mainly for an export market of over 50 countries. The company is said to be considering adding a third vehicle model to its production line in Türkiye.
Türkiye has a well-developed automotive industry, outputting about a million vehicles per annum under well-known brands including Toyota, Ford, Renault, Fiat, Honda, and Hyundai.