Toyota could stop production at Burnaston ‘for months’ after no-deal Brexit

A no-deal Brexit would halt production at Toyota’s car production plant in Burnaston, near Derby, the car-maker has told the BBC.

The Japanese manufacturer said it doesn’t know how long the downtime would last, but that its just-in-time production is reliant on parts imported from EU countries. Some 90% of Toyota cars were exported to the EU last year.

Toyota makes the Auris and the Avensis at Burnaston and has announced it is spending £250m on the plant to bring forward production of its new Corolla. The company has plans to create 400 jobs.

Marvin Cooke, managing director at Burnaston, told the BBC: “”My view is that if Britain crashes out of the EU at the end of March we will see production stops in our factory.

“We can’t predict – it could be hours, days, weeks – even months.

“In the longer term the burden of import and export costs would add permanent costs to our business, it would reduce our competitiveness. Sadly that would reduce the number of cars made in the UK and that would cost jobs.”