VALENCIENNES, France (Reuters) – Japanese car maker Toyota plans to ramp up production capacity at its Valenciennes factory in northern France to 300,000 cars per year to meet increased European demand for hybrid vehicles, the chairman of Toyota’s French arm said on Thursday.
The plant – which makes Toyota’s popular city car Yaris and its SUV version Yaris Cross, last year manufactured 255,584 cars, making it the biggest car-making plant in France. It expects to hit a new record of 280,000 cars produced this year.
“We can do 290,000, even 300,000 today if there is demand,” Jim Crosbie told reporters at the site.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, editing by Silvia Aloisi)
