Toyota To Produce Diesel Engines In France

BRUSSELS Jamuary 14, 2003; Matthew Fletcher writing for Bloomberg reported that Toyota Motor Corp. said it started building diesel engines at its factory in Valenciennes, France, as the world's third-largest automaker aims to increase its share of the European car market.

The plant will have the capacity to assemble 30,000 diesel engines for the Toyota Yaris, the automaker said in a statement. The company's Deeside, England, factory started diesel production earlier this month and will build 70,500 engines for the Corolla and Avensis, it said.

Toyota has said it wants to raise its share of Europe's car market to 5 percent by 2005 from the current 4 percent. The share of diesel autos in Western Europe, the second-biggest market after the United States, has more than doubled in the last decade to 40 percent.