At last, Britain is ready to build hybrid cars

The Sunday Times
June 28, 2009
Toyota expects to start making the Auris hatchback at its plant near Derby before the end of the year

Ray Hutton

BRITAIN is to make hybrid cars for the first time after a decision by Toyota to start production of the high-tech vehicles at its Burnaston plant near Derby.
The UK is the first European country the Japanese car giant has chosen for hybrid production, and only the third outside Japan. Toyota makes nearly all its hybrids in Japan, with small numbers produced in China and America. The best known of these cars is the Prius.
The introduction of the new vehicle to Burnaston – a hybrid version of the Auris hatchback – follows intense negotiations with the government in recent months. It is understood that Britain will provide financial assistance to help the move.
Official confirmation is expected in the next few months, with Gordon Brown expected to visit the Burnaston plant for the announcement. The Sunday Times has learnt that production is expected to start at the end of this year.

Ministers are expected to trumpet the move as an example of Britain prospering from a new low-carbon manufacturing sector. Ministers have forecast 1m “green-collar” jobs and have funnelled financial assistance for the motor industry towards hybrid and electric-vehicle projects.
Earlier this year Brown and Lord Mandel-son, the business secretary, said they planned to make Britain a centre for the production of low-emission vehicles.
Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, and Lord Drayson, the science minister, last week announced the award of grants under a £25m electric car trial (see panel on the right).
Besides introducing the hybrid Auris, Toyota will also participate in this electric-vehicle trial. A number of plug-in Prius prototypes will be included in the 340-model ultra-low-carbon vehicle demonstration programme set up by the Transport Strategy Board.
The Auris hybrid will not have a plug-in facility, but will use a petrol engine to drive the car in combination with an electric motor. It will share the 1.8litre petrol engine and electric motor with the new Prius, which has the lowest carbon dioxide emissions of any five-seater car, at 89g per kilometre, and an official average fuel consumption figure of 72.4mpg.
Although the Auris and Prius are built on the same chassis platform, the Auris is smaller and lighter and so is likely to have an even lower carbon-dioxide rating.
When it goes on sale early next year, it is expected to be priced below the £18,370 Prius, closer to the recently launched Honda Insight Hybrid, which starts at £15,490.
Burnaston makes the Auris and the larger Avensis in their entirety, using engines built at Deeside, North Wales, but the hybrid’s drive system (engine, motor, batteries and electronics) will be imported from Japan.
This will be the first hybrid based on an existing production model that Toyota has sold in Europe.
The popularity of the Prius on both sides of the Atlantic is at least partly because its futuristic styling identifies it as a special model – owners can be seen to be green. More than 1m Priuses have been sold world-wide since it first appeared in 1997.
It remains to be seen whether an Auris hybrid that looks like its petrol and diesel counterparts will be a success. The Honda Civic Hybrid – a version of an existing model – did not sell as well as the Prius, which is why the new Insight was established as a separate model with a remarkable similarity to Toyota’s trendsetter.
Toyota is working on a pure electric small car, based on the iQ, that will be recharged by plugging it into an external electricity supply, but the company continues to favour the petrol-electric hybrid system for mainstream models.
It has a target to build 1m hybrids a year. Those will include a wider variety of Lexus premium models and hybrid versions of the Toyota Yaris and Rav4.
Current plans for hybrid production at Burnaston do not extend beyond the Auris.
For most European markets, diesel engines are a stronger proposition in the Avensis size and price class.
Toyota is one of Britain’s largest motor-industry employers, with 4,300 staff at two plants – Burnaston and its engine plant at Deeside.
So far the plants have escaped the worst of the recession. While several British factories have had to close for several months, the Toyota facilities have been able to limit the fallout to a series of week-long stoppages, short-time working and a 10% across-the-board pay cut.
Last year Toyota’s car production in the UK fell by 20% to 213,000. Its sales of cars in the UK fell 13% to 124,382.
Akio Toyoda, who recently took over as president of Toyota, last week pledged a sweeping restructuring of the group to return it to profit. It lost $4.6 billion (£2.8 billion) last year and forecasts a bigger deficit this year.

IN THE MAGAZINE How to make Britain green and clean

Part one: Sea, shore and beach THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE TRIAL HITS THE STREETS EIGHT groups have been handed £25m by the Department for Transport to test-drive electric cars on our streets. The recipients range from car giants to groups led by local councils and technology companies. Ford will test a battery-powered version of the Focus, Britain’s best-selling car, while BMW will lead a team testing an electric Mini, and Toyota will try out a plug-in Prius. The aim is to make ultra-low-carbon vehicles an everyday feature of British life in less than five years.
In a separate move, four other companies – Ashwoods, Allied Vehicles, Modec and Smith Electric Vehicles – have been chosen by the Department for Transport to provide low-carbon and electric vans for government and council fleet trials.
The four will share £20m of government money to produce a fleet of 100 to 150 vehicles that will be put into service with council and government departments to assess their practicality and potential for fuel savings. Eventually, these trials will be used as the foundation for a larger, government-wide purchase of low-emission vans.