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Toyota will build its next battery-electric car at the Aygo X and Yaris factory in the Czech Republic, the company has confirmed.

An investment of €680 million (£592m) will be used to expand the factory from 152,000m2 to 173,000m2, adding a new battery production line, paint shop and welding facility.

The new development will increase the plant’s capacity beyond its current 220,000 cars per year, said Toyota, and the majority of components used for the new model will be sourced from within the Czech Republic. 

The company has yet to confirm what form the new model may take. The company referred to “multi-pathway” production, suggesting it might be a Europe-focused EV based on the same TNGA-B structure as the Yaris. 

However, it could occupy an altogether different market segment. Toyota Europe product and marketing boss Andrea Carlucci told Autocar earlier this year that an electric car in the vein of the Yaris was not yet viable. "We have deliberately decided to start [our electric car sales] in the fastest-growing segments [C, D and E],” he said. “The right moment will arrive, but this is not quite now.”

Toyota’s investment in the factory is backed by €64m (£56m) of funding from the Czech government. Czech prime minister Petr Fiala described the development as “crucial” for the future of the nation’s car industry, adding it will create 245 new jobs.

Guildford-based start-up Halcyon has revealed a new restomod based on the Rolls-Royce Corniche and Silver Shadow, converting the classic cruisers to electric power using an architecture developed entirely in-house.

Based on the later rubber-bumpered models, it swaps the original circa-200bhp 6.75-litre V8 for a rear-mounted electric motor with significantly more poke. Standard Range examples get around 400bhp, while the Long Range is boosted to some 500bhp.

Under the bonnet lies a large battery pack constructed in the same vee shape as the original powerplant; at the rear end sits a second unit that replaces the petrol tank. This set-up is said to preserve both the packaging and the weight distribution of the original car, tipping the scales at the same 2.2 tonnes (split 53:47, front to rear).

Standard Range cars are claimed by Halcyon to deliver a range of around 200-250 miles, while the Long Range manages 250-300 miles.

The system runs on 800V electricals, allowing charge rates of up to 230kW. This yields a 10-80% refill in around 40 minutes.

The entire electrical package and the software on which it runs was developed and supplied by Halcyon’s sister company, Evice. This, according to the companies’ co-founder and CEO Matthew Pearson, gave much greater freedom to develop an ideal technical solution for the Silver Shadow platform.

There are three driving modes to maximise the bandwidth of the Halcyon Corniche’s capabilities, named Drive, Spirited and Touring. Pearson explained: “In Spirited you’ll get a slightly more responsive throttle, slightly firmer dampers both passively and actively; and in Touring, if you’re on a motorway, enable cruise control and the dampers will slack right off – you’ll just be on a floating cloud.” Because the entire electrical package is the company’s own development, rather than a series of off-the-shelf components, “we can be quite precise with how we want the car to behave”. 

In addition to technical changes, the Halcyon Rolls-Royce gets a new interior that aims to strike a balance between a traditional look and offering modern conveniences. For example, it has wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity and a reversing camera, but the screen hosting these features can also be hidden at the touch of a button. The instrument panel retains analogue dials too, displaying key information such as the remaining range and battery charge level. Halcyon also promises material quality and personalisation on a par with brand-new Rolls-Royces.

It will build a total of 60 cars, offering the conversion on both the Corniche coupé and convertible and the Silver Shadow saloon. Prices start at around £400,000 excluding the cost of a donor car (around £50,000 for a tidy example) and taxes.

The Corniche and Silver Shadow were chosen to launch the Halycon and Evice businesses because of both the models’ appeal and their platform’s technical attributes, said Pearson. He explained: “There are earlier cars that were options, but their body-on-frame [constructions] do not tolerate the degree [of modification or performance]; the electric powertrain just simply doesn’t have an end result for what we were looking for.”

Pearson added that the Silver Shadow’s unibody construction meant it was one of the most torsionally stiff cars of its period, so is “really well suited to the sort of things that we’re expecting”. 

There was also a commercial argument in favour of the Roller. “The thing that we absolutely wanted was to do it properly, and to give us the capacity to develop technologies that can serve other purposes,” said Pearson. “We needed to do that by building a car for which clients are willing to spend what we want to charge.”

The allure of contemporaries such as the Citroën DS would not have matched up to the high price that Halcyon is asking for its Silver Shadow, suggested Pearson, so were considered a no-go.

The first Halcyon cars are earmarked for delivery next year. In the meantime, Evice will begin pitching its technologies and services to firms in the automotive, marine and commercial vehicle sectors. It has already developed an electric test mule for Land Rover specialist Twisted and will commence a feasibility study on that car in the coming months.