Official: Toyota to build GR Corolla in UK

Toyota will build the GR Corolla hot hatch in the UK from next year in a bid to cater to increasing demand.

Confirming this week's report from Reuters, the Japanese manufacturer said it had chosen the Corolla plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, to boost GR Corolla production and preparations had been under way since last year.

The hot Corolla will be the first GR model to be built outside Japan. Toyota said Burnaston – Toyota Manufacturing UK – was a natural fit because of the capability of the factory and its staff. It also pointed to the "deep motorsport culture" in the UK aligning with its GR (Gazoo Racing) sub-brand.

The business case was almost certainly swayed by the fact that Burnaston also has a large and ready supply of Corolla bodies and ancillaries.

Toyota added that the decision comes as part of a wider production overhaul aimed at accelerating production and customer delivery times. Indeed, GR Corolla buyers in the US have typically faced long waiting lists and dealer-added cost mark-ups since the car's launch in 2022, owing to strong demand for the model.

Production and investment levels will be announced by the firm at a later date, but Reuters previously said it would cost £41 million to add the new line at Burnaston and that would give a capacity of 10,000 cars annually.

Reuters added that Toyota’s Motomachi plant in Japan – the so-called GR Factory, responsible for output of the GR Corolla, GR Yaris and GR86 – is currently at full capacity. It assembled 25,000 GR cars last year, of which around a third were Corollas.

As well as boosting overall output of GR Corollas, the addition of UK production will surely give Toyota additional flexibility to build other models at Motomachi. It could ramp up GR Yaris production, for example, or add entirely new models at the factory.

As previously reported by Autocar, Toyota-owned Lexus is priming a new flagship sports car that is expected to compete in GT3 racing series from next year. It is most likely that Motomachi would host assembly of this model, given it previously housed its predecessor, the LFA supercar.

The GR division has also been working on an all-new Celica coupé and is thought to be considering replacements for the MR2 (discontinued in 2007) and Supra, plus a Mazda MX-5 rival.

Although the plan to boost GR Corolla production through the UK has not been informed by US president Donald Trump’s tariffs, given it pre-dates Trump's presidency, the decision to export from the UK surely benefits the company on that front.