Toyota Auris Touring Sports goes in to production

The Toyota Auris Touring Sports has gone in to production

We’ve had the debut of the Toyota Auris Sports Touring, we know the specs, and we know how much the Auris Estate will cost. And now Toyota has started production of the first full hybrid estate car in its sector. The first Auris Touring Sports rolled off the production line at Toyota’s Burnaston Plant on Thursday – a white car, predictably – with the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, and Toyota’s European CEO, Didier Leroy, on hand to welcome the Touring Sports to European roads.

The Auris Estate is a good offering from Toyota with decent looks, good spec, decent load-lugging capacity and, for those who want it, a full hybrid powertrain as an option in addition to a 1.4 D-4D and 1.6 Valvematic.

Tony Walker, Toyota’s UK Deputy MD, said

The introduction of new Auris Touring Sports is great news for TMUK and the British motor industry. It confirms TMUK’s status as a leading producer of core vehicles and engines for Toyota in Europe and is a testament to our members’ commitment to achieving the highest quality and satisfaction that our customers demand.

And with the full hybrid model we are again proud to be supporting Toyota’s leadership in developing advanced technologies for cleaner and more sustainable transport.

Toyota’s move to make hybrid powertrains an option on mainstream models – and leave the Prius to debut cutting edge stuff in the future – is the right way to get buyers to understand a hybrid powertrain is merely and option and not a statement of ‘green-ness’, and is already seeing hybrid sales climb rapidly.

The very promising Auris Touring Sports will only add to that.

The Toyota Auris Touring Sport costs from £15,595, with the cheapest hybrid version – the Icon 1.8 Hybrid Synergy Drive – costing £21,095.

By Cars UK