Toyota has begun manufacturing the second generation Toyota Aygo at the Kolin plant in the Czech Republic, where “platform siblings” Peugeot 108 and Citroën C1 are also made.

The production of the new city car marks a new phase in the life of the Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobiles (TPCA) joint venture company and was possible thanks to an investment of more than 6 billion Czech crowns (€219 million). The new generation models also created 700 new jobs at the plant. 

At the moment, the plant produces approximately 300 vehicles per day, or a car every 55 seconds. From next week, the output will be increased to more than 700 cars and by the beginning of June, the plant will reach a capacity of more than 1,000 vehicles per day. TPCA targets an annual production of more than 210,000 vehicles. For 2015, Toyota has set an annual sales target of over 80,000 units, with an estimated market share of 6 percent.

“A new phase in the life of TPCA starts today. I believe it will be as successful as the previous one, during which we produced almost 2.4 million high quality compact city cars. We expect that our traditional markets in both Western and Eastern Europe will be particularly interested in the new car,” said Kent Koide, president of TPCA.

The Aygo lineup consists of three grades and three special editions, which Toyota says it will update yearly. The car is available with a newly-developed 1.0-liter VVT-I petrol engine that can be combined with a manual transmission or the “x-shift” automated manual gearbox. With this engine, the Aygo returns 3.8 l/100 km (61.9 mpg US) and emits 88 g/km of CO2.

Sales of the new Aygo in Europe will begin this summer.

By Dan Mihalascu

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