Canadian customers looking to buy a Toyota GR Corolla know that wait times are long. Demand for the Japanese automaker's sports car is strong, which is good news for the manufacturer. However, if wait times are too long, some potential buyers might just go look elsewhere.
To avoid that, Toyota is moving some GR Corolla production to England. The units produced there will be destined for the North American market, according to Reuters.
Note that only a portion of the production is being moved to England, not the entire production volume. Toyota will reportedly invest $56 million USD to add an assembly line at the Burnaston plant, which is currently not operating at 100-percent capacity.
Currently, all GR Corollas are assembled at Toyota's Motomachi plant in Toyota City, Japan, which is operating at full capacity and can’t add more.
It's also reported that GR Corolla production in England will begin in mid-2026. High demand for hybrid models in the U.S. is the likely reason Toyota isn’t moving GR Corolla production to the U.S. There’s just no production capacity available there.
Given the thorny issue of U.S. tariffs, Toyota, like every automaker, has to carefully calculate where it produces each model to minimize any duties-related losses. That said, sources told Reuters reportedly that Toyota does not plan to increase the price of the GR Corolla, meaning it would absorb any tariff costs related to UK exports to the U.S., which are currently taxed at 10 percent under the recent agreement signed between the two countries.