Automotive giant invests in new engine

AUTOMOTIVE giant Toyota is to make a new hybrid engine at its factory on Deeside.

A £7m investment by the company, supported by a £700,000 grant from the Welsh government,  is expected to secure hundreds of jobs.

The 1.8 litre engines will be exported to Turkey to be built into a model based on Toyota’s C-HR concept car.

There are currently about 540 employees at the Deeside factory, making 950 engines a day in 13 variants.

The new hybrid engine will be built alongside current petrol and hybrid petrol engines for the Auris model, which go to the company’s factory at Burnaston, Derbyshire where the vehicle is produced.

Engine plant director Jim Crosbie said: “This announcement is a big vote of confidence in the high skills, quality and commitment of our workforce.”

Engines and parts made at Deeside are exported across Europe, South America, South Africa and Japan. The plant, on the Deeside Industrial Park, just over the Welsh border, opened in 1992.