2023-03-31 07:00:00
Dark clouds hang over the Toyota plant in Valenciennes, northern France, but joy reigns supreme in the halls. At exactly 12:10 p.m. on March 30, 2023, the world’s ten millionth Yaris rolls off the assembly line. Work in the largest European Toyota factory is suspended for a few minutes, hundreds of employees line the production line and cheeringly wave the tricolor flags that have been distributed beforehand. The model – a Yaris GR Sport in Dynamic Gray – was handed over to a French customer from the Paris region.
The Yaris is thus the fifth Toyota to achieve this historic sales brand. Almost half of them were sold in Europe, with a total of 5,155,506 vehicles by the end of February 2023. Because even though it was designed, developed and built for Europeans and by Europeans as a “European car”, according to Marvin Cooke, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Europe, the small car is now manufactured as a world model in ten countries around the world. Production began in January 1999 at the Takaoka Plant in Aichi, Japan. The model is now being developed in nine other countries, from Brazil to China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and France to the Czech Republic.
In Europe, Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF) has been producing the Yaris since 2001 and the Yaris Cross since 2021. At that time, the plant in Kolin, Czech Republic also started production to meet the increasing demand in Europe. Finally, in Walbrzych, Poland, essential components such as petrol and electric motors and transmissions are manufactured for the plants in France and the Czech Republic.
The Yaris can look back on an exciting history with many premieres and awards. The small car was the first Toyota ever to be given its shape in the European design center ED2. Thanks to the “big-small” design, the 3.61 meter short car with its tall and spacious body offered a comfortable and practical interior that exceeded the space offered by many higher-class vehicles. In terms of safety, too, the Yaris was the safest car in its segment according to the Euro NCAP rating. The first generation was initially powered by a 1.0-liter petrol engine with 68 hp (50 kW), which was named “International Engine of the Year” in 1999. A year later, the five-door was also the first Toyota to win the title of “Car of the Year” in Europe. And in Japan, too, the Toyota Vitz, as the model is called in its home market, was voted Car of the Year in the same year.
The name in general: According to Toyota diction, it is derived from “Charis”, the singular form of “Charites”, the Greek goddesses of charm, beauty, human creativity, goodwill and fertility. Around the world, however, the car was given other names over the course of time. Marketed as the Vitz in Japan, the car was also known by the names Platz, Echo, Belta, Vios and Scion iA, depending on variant and region. The Yaris was also sold in some markets as the Daihatsu Charade and Mazda 2. However, the ten million cars sold only refer to the models named Yaris, Vitz, Yaris Cross and GR Yaris.
The second generation, launched in Europe in 2005, was available as a three- and five-door model with two petrol engines and one diesel, as well as a sporty TS variant with 132 hp (97 kW). With the third Yaris generation in 2012, the full hybrid drive entered the small car segment for the first time. With a system output of 100 hp (74 kW), the petrol-electric hermaphrodite offered the best fuel efficiency in its class and made it possible to drive in pure electric mode without exhaust emissions at least for a part of the time. Following a major facelift in 2017 and Toyota’s involvement in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), the racing-inspired Yaris GR Sport was added to the 2018 model range. Its success ensured that this special version found its way into the entire European model portfolio of Toyota.
Finally, the fourth generation, which was launched in 2020, received a much sportier design and is the first model to be sold worldwide under the Yaris name. The new edition was the first compact car to be built on the modular GA-B platform of the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), which improved driving dynamics and comfort. The efficiency of the drive train was increased by 22 percent, the performance of the hybrid system to 116 hp (85 kW) and optimized to such an extent that the car can now be driven electrically at speeds of up to 130 km/h. Thanks to the combination of compact dimensions, good equipment, urban chic and the lowest fuel consumption in its class, the Yaris became the best-selling Toyota model in Europe for the first time.
The experts might only agree: a good two decades following the Yaris first won the vote for Europe’s “Car of the Year”, the current generation repeated this success in 2021. In the same year, the next expansion stage followed with the Yaris Cross, which takes into account the general SUV trend in the small car sector. Shortly following its appearance, the small all-wheel drive vehicle was voted “World Urban Car 2022” by a jury of 102 international journalists from 33 countries – and quickly became one of the best-selling Toyota models in Europe. (cen/Frank Wald)
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