Type Private joint venture Products Automobiles Founded 2002 Number of employees 3,200 | Industry Automotive Website en.tpca.cz Headquarters Kolín, Czech Republic Parent organizations Toyota, Peugeot | |
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Owner Toyota Motor Corporation (50%)
PSA Peugeot Citroën (50%) | ||
Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile Czech (TPCA) is an automobile manufacturing company in Kolín, Czech Republic. It is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and PSA Peugeot Citroën. It manufactures Toyota, Peugeot and Citroën models in the Czech Republic for sale in Europe. TPCA produces small cars mainly for the European market. Production started in February 2005, though the official opening ceremony was not until June.
Contents
TPCA is the company former French president Nicolas Sarkozy had in mind in his televised attack on free trade.
Products
The company produces three cars that are, in essence, the same but badge engineered: the Citroën C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo. These cars share the vast majority of parts with only small cosmetic alterations.
In 2014, the next generation models were launched, with Citroën and Toyota retaining their existing model names, and Peugeot naming their new version the 108. The second generation joint venture still shares many key components, but there are more visual differences between the different marques.
Criticism by French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy, once referred to as the "Saviour of Free Trade and Competition"[1] and a "Champion of Europe"[2], referred to the plant in a televised speech against free trade within the European Union:
(Translated from French)
"I want us to stop the relocation ... To create a factory in India to sell Renault in India is justified, but to create a factory in the Czech Republic to sell cars in France is not justified".
2010 recall
In January 2010, Toyota announced a worldwide recall on several of their vehicles for a faulty sticking accelerator pedal - in which the Aygo is affected. Under certain circumstances, the pedal can stick in a partially depressed position, or return slowly to the off position. PSA Peugeot Citroën followed suit, announcing a recall of "under 100,000 units" of the Citroën C1 and the Peugeot 107 for the same issue. New information from Toyota has suggested, however, that only Aygos and Peugeot 107s with Aisin Ez-drive automated manual gearboxes (Multi-mode/2-Tronic) are affected, and that those with manual gearboxes are not.