Toyota GR Corolla Could Be Built In Britain, Says Report

Ever since it launched a few years ago, we’ve been keeping our fingers crossed that the Toyota GR Corolla would come to Britain. Now, says a report, that could actually happen, but not in the way you’d necessarily expect – or hope.

Reuters, citing “two people with knowledge of the matter,” reports that to meet demand for the GR Corolla, particularly in North America, Toyota could spend $56 million (around £41.5 million) on adding a new production line at its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, dedicated to building the rally-bred hatch.

Presently, the GR Corolla is produced solely at Toyota’s Motomachi plant in Toyota City near Nagoya, Japan, but the company is said to be struggling to meet demand from the US, with long wait times resulting.

Toyota’s various US plants, meanwhile, are busy building other vehicles for which there’s high demand in the country, making it difficult to add GR Corolla production there. Adding a GR-specific production line to the Burnaston plant, meanwhile, should require a comparatively small effort, as the factory already produces the regular Corolla.

While it’s not said to be a factor behind the decision, building the US-market GR Corolla in the UK would likely bring another benefit for Toyota. Cars brought in from Japan are currently subject to Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff on all non-US-built cars, but the UK government recently negotiated a trade deal to have this reduced to 10 per cent on up to 100,000 cars per year.

Sadly, what none of this necessarily means is that the GR Corolla is going on sale in Europe. Despite several prototypes being spotted testing at the Nürburgring last year, Toyota still has no plans – publicly at least – to market the car here.

It wouldn’t be the first time a car not meant for UK consumption has been built here – famously, the Japanese market version of the EP3 Honda Civic Type R, which featured numerous chassis upgrades and an extra 20bhp over the European version, was still built in Honda’s now-closed factory in Swindon.