Toyota warned that it may end manufacturing in the UK if the country crashes out of the European Union on unfavorable terms, joining other automakers reviewing their operations in Britain as negotiations toward Brexit drag on.
"If the business environment becomes very difficult to operate, of course those types of decisions should be on the agenda," Johan van Zyl, the Japanese company’s head of Europe, told reporters at the Geneva auto show on Wednesday. "But hopefully we will be able to avoid" a withdrawal, he said.
The Toyota executive’s comments follow Nissan's decision last month to renege on plans to build the X-Trail SUV in England and Honda's announcement to end production in the country in 2021. Britain has long been a Japanese hub for European auto production, with Honda, Nissan and Toyota owning three of the country’s six largest factories.