Even before Covid-19 brought production lines to a standstill, the British car industry was having a tough time. A combination of technical upheaval, political quarrelling, economic uncertainty and falling sales has been hitting hard. Investment has dwindled. Jobs have been lost. Factories are being closed.
All of that makes this particular story about our car industry unusual. Because, although it’s set against the backdrop of uncertainty caused by Brexit and many other factors, this is a good news story. It’s a good news story about a factory that has received major investment, increased production and shown that British manufacturing is as good as any in the world. In an industry in tumult, this factory has remained as calm as a Japanese zen garden. Except it’s in Derbyshire.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK opened in Burnaston in December 1992 and began building the Carina E. Since then, it has produced various generations of the Avensis, Corolla and Auris – solid, if uninspired, cars that kept the production line humming but don’t exactly add up to the finest manufacturing legacy.
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However, the Auris was replaced last year by the new Corolla, a refreshed, rejuvenated machine that has proven a big success. While total UK car manufacturing output fell by 14.2% in 2019, production at Burnaston rose by 14.7%, with 148,106 Corollas rolling off its lines.
That figure is unlikely to be maintained in 2020. At the time of writing, production at the Toyota factory was, as with every major plant in the UK and most worldwide, suspended. But the impact of that will be judged later. For now, let’s focus on the good news story.
Besides, when Autocar visited Burnaston in early March, social distancing had extended only to not shaking hands and standing farther apart than usual. Production was still in full flow, with 2600 staff working two shifts per day to make a new Corolla every 89 seconds.
The slick operation is overseen by managing director Jim Crosbie. He’s only been in this role since January but has spent 19 years at Toyota, starting at Burnaston before spells in the Czech Republic and at the firm’s engine plant in Deeside. He’s seen how Burnaston has grown, both in output and expertise, over the years.
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“The plant is getting on for 30 years old, and our skills, knowledge and capability have increased hugely,” he says.
When Carina E production ended in 1997, it was replaced by the Avensis. The following year, the Corolla was added as a second model line, succeeded by the Auris in 2007. After two decades as home to two models, the discontinuation of the Avensis in 2018 meant efforts were focused on one car again. Happily, as previously noted, it’s a good one.
That the Corolla succeeded the Auris (actually, it was originally launched under that name) didn’t automatically mean the UK would get to build it. The confirmation of that came in early 2018, following a £240 million investment to upgrade production lines for the new TNGA platform the Corolla sits on.
“We were delighted to get the model,” says Crosbie. “Being honest, we’re quite happy with the name change back to Corolla. It’s not just a European model; it’s one of Toyota’s key global brands. “In the past, some of the models built here haven’t been, can I say, the most exciting to look at, but that has completely changed with the Corolla. The members here are really enthusiastic about it. It’s good when you’re building and producing a car you know customers will enjoy. That satisfaction and pride is really important.”
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While securing a new model on a new global platform is a major positive, Crosbie says the “huge change” wasn’t easy to make.
“We knew from other plants that had switched to the platform before us that it was a big challenge,” he says. “We needed to add around 200 new robots, change to an aluminium bonnet and a plastic rear door, change to ultra-high-strength steel and introduce a new paint line in our plastic shop for bumpers.
“Those are all massive changes. We’ve introduced new robots before, but not 200 at a time.”
The new robots and techniques have been phased in where possible. For example, employees in the welding shop were sent for training with the robots’ manufacturers before the robots were introduced over time.
It helps that many of the staff at Burnaston have been there since it was formally opened by the Prince of Wales in 1993. “We have several hundred people who celebrated 25 years here recently,” notes Crosbie. “People have been very loyal.”
Crosbie says the support received from Toyota in Japan was “much reduced compared to previous major model changes”. That’s not through a lack of interest, though, but because the plant doesn’t need the help.
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“In the beginning, this was literally a fresh site, so we had lots of support from Japan,” he says. “Through the years, we decided we should be capable of doing certain things by ourselves, and Japan has recognised that, so our self-reliance has grown.
“We even work directly with Japanese equipment and parts suppliers now. It’s win-win, because it means the resources for research and development and so on don’t need to be used here so can go elsewhere.”
Still, while HQ has been relatively hands-off, there’s still pressure to maintain Toyota’s formidable reputation for build quality. “Right from launch, the very first car has to be top quality,” says Crosbie. “It’s a day-to-day job: making sure we build the vehicle to the correct standard and quality level. Early shift, late shift, no matter what the time: each vehicle must be exactly the same.
“It sounds straightforward, but it’s extremely challenging to make sure that happens. Toyota doesn’t get a reputation for quality by not being skilled at doing these things, and a lot of our processes are about making sure we can confirm the quality of each process. Toyota is famous for its Jidoka quality assurance method. If there are any doubts, pull the Andon: we’ll stop the line and sort it out.”
The Andon? Spend any time at Burnaston and you’ll hear the Andon. It’s a jaunty Japanese chime that’s set off by a worker pulling a cord. They do so whenever they encounter a potential issue: a production blemish, a screw that didn’t thread right and so on. It stops the line and alerts a manager, who helps fix the problem before production resumes.
You might expect managers to wince when they hear the Andon, because it signals a production delay, but it’s actually music to their ears.
“Our production line moves quickly,” says Crosbie, “but we make clear with members that safety is the first priority, both of the product that goes to customers and of our members. The second priority is quality: ensuring the product is right.
European versions of the Hilux are usually made in Durban, but Toyota’s Burnaston factory has been tasked with developing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered iteration of the pick-up.
The Derbyshire plant is best known for producing the Corolla but it’s the first time the factory has developed its own vehicle, with the reveal taking place there yesterday.
Toyota’s Mirai was one of the first hydrogen-powered cars when it was made available in 2015.
A second-generation Mirai followed in 2020, and three of this car’s hydrogen tanks underpin the Hilux, on a sub-frame bolted to the main ladder chassis of the pick-up.
Toyota is targeting a range of some 600km (373 miles) with quick refuelling – it takes a similar length of time to fill a hydrogen car as it does a petrol or diesel model.
This is seen as the main advantage over the lengthier charge times needed for EVs. Toyota says it believes battery-electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles will ‘converse and overlap each other’.
It is targeting industries such as construction and mining for the Hilux, where the vehicles need to be on the go for longer, and will be demonstrating the model with customers throughout 2024. No production model has yet been confirmed.
The project began in the middle of 2021, with Toyota plus consortium partners receiving financial backing from the government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre a year later.
The £11.3m project has received £5.6m of government funding.
According to The Times, Toyota has made 10 prototypes of the hydrogen Hilux.
Toyota’s hydrogen Hilux is refuelled
Richard Kenworthy, managing director of Toyota Manufacturing UK, said: ‘The project team have accomplished an incredible job in a very short space of time, from creating the prototype build area to completion of the first vehicle.
‘The UK government funding has enabled us not only to develop a new vehicle in record time but also to upskill our teams to work on hydrogen-related technologies – something we hope to build on in the future.
‘This is a great vote of confidence in UK manufacturing and its potential to deliver carbon-free vehicles to meet future targets.’
The long-term future of Toyota’s UK manufacturing operations is still uncertain, though, with the firm currently only producing the hybrid-powered Corolla at Burnaston.
The government is yet to clarify whether the ‘self-charging’ hybrid setup – such as that used in the Corolla – will be allowed to be sold in new cars after 2030 because of the petrol and diesel car ban.
Kenworthy told the PA news agency: ‘We think part of the solution is hybrid through to 2035.
‘It doesn’t need charging infrastructure and it demonstrates that it can achieve carbon reduction, which is what it’s all about.
‘We’re not saying our future plans, but we strongly believe we should be taking the multi-track approach.
‘We think that after 2030 we should still be selling hybrid, not just in the UK but across Europe.
‘It will certainly be used globally, because you’re not going to have the infrastructure in place by then.’
Images: Rod Kirkpatrick/RKP Photography
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Ted Welford
Ted Welford is a motoring journalist for Car Dealer’s parent company Blackball Media. He writes for a variety of motoring publications and tests the latest cars on a regular basis. He likes cleaning them too.
