Suzuki will launch a new British-built hybrid car thanks to its new strategic partnership with Toyota.

The two Japanese brands announced yesterday (March 20) that they intended to further their plans to collaborate in new fields after resolving to pool their expertise to develop alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) and compact cars.

Now it has emerged that the new relationship will result in the production of a Suzuki-badged hybrid vehicle at Toyota’s Burnaston manufacturing plant, near Derby.

Based on the new Corolla – a car which the factory officially started making at the beginning of the year – the new model should usher-in an affordable electrified solution for the brand’s UK car retailers.

The Derbyshire factory is expected to start making the vehicles towards the end of 2020, the Derby Telegraph reported, with hybrid engines produced at Toyota’s engine manufacturing plant at Deeside, in North Wales.

The newspaper reported that the number of vehicles produced for Suzuki is unlikely to exceed the plants current capacity, meaning that the introduction will have little to no impact on the 2,600 people currently employed at the plant.