Toyota has released a short video detailing how the GR Yaris hot hatch is built at a new production facility at its Motomachi factory.
Uploaded to Toyota UK’s YouTube channel earlier in June 2020 (before being featured on Motor1.com), the clip shows the fresh-faced hot hatch being built on a new a line dedicated to GR sportscars. Instead of the traditional conveyor system, the Japanese firm says the body and assembly lines comprise a “number of different cells connected by automatic guided vehicles”.
Production of each vehicle calls for a “large number of manual processes, for which Toyota uses a specialist team”.
“The factory design and the talents of the workforce allow for high-precision assembly of highly rigid vehicle bodies to levels that are hard to achieve on standard production lines,” the company says.
The brand claims these latest manufacturing methods mean its GR facility is capable of handling “multi-type, small-volume production, without compromising productivity”.
Toyota South Africa Motors earlier told CARmag.co.za the new, three-door GR Yaris hot hatch was “likely” to launch locally only in 2021.
As a reminder, the new GR Yaris employs a turbocharged 1,6-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine offering 192 kW/360 N.m in European spec and 200 kW/370 N.m in Japanese spec. Toyota says the hot hatch will hit 100 km/h from standstill in “less than 5,5 seconds”.
Watch the video below…
