VALENCIENNES, France -- After securing a firm footing in the U.S., Toyota Motor Corp. is now gearing up its European operations in a bid to bite deeper into the world's second-largest market.
Just last month, Japan's biggest carmaker began full-scale production of the Yaris compact car in its brand new plant here, its first production base in France.
For Toyota and other Japanese automakers, however, Europe remains a hard market to crack with powerful European and U.S. players -- Volkswagen, Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and Ford -- already entangled in cut-throat competition.