255,936 vehicles left the Japanese manufacturer’s northern site in 2022.
Toyota dethrones Stellantis. Last year, the Japanese manufacturer’s factory based in Onnaing near Valenciennes became the leading car factory in France with 255,936 vehicles produced, or 50,000 more than in 2021, according to a note from S&P Global Mobility relayed by The echoes.
Toyota’s only site in France succeeds the Stellantis plant in Sochaux, which produced less than 200,000 cars in 2022, after 265,000 in 2021 and more than 500,000 in 2019. In question, work aimed at concentrating the assembly of vehicles on a single line, thus reducing the site’s production capacity to 400,000 vehicles per year.
Recruitments
For its part, the Toyota plant in Valenciennes is driven by the success of the Toyota Yaris, produced on the site since 2001, and the Yaris Cross SUV assembled on the same production line since 2021. The plant is 98% automated, also integrates the molding of plastic parts on site. A world first that greatly simplifies logistics and limits costs.
This year, Toyota intends to continue its momentum by counting on 280,000 vehicles produced in Valenciennes. Faced with a full order book, Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF) announced in September a vast plan to recruit 500 employees on permanent contracts by the end of 2024 to increase the number of employees on permanent contracts present on the site to more than 4,000 out of a total workforce of nearly 5,000 employees.
