Toyota Material Handling Europe's new painting facility in Swedish factory inaugurated

The facility has been under construction since 2023 and is an important investment towards increased production capacity at the factory in Mjölby. In 2025, 90 000 electric trucks were manufactured in the factory and the new powder coating plant, Paletten, is a very important piece of the puzzle to enable the company's long-term vision of manufacturing 120,000 electric trucks per year in Mjölby. By increasing the production capacity, the paint shop also contributes to an improved working environment by enabling continuous two-shift work instead of three-shift work.

Paletten, Swedish referring to a colour palette, has a factory area of over 7,000 square metres and is a painting facility with state-of-the-art technologies such as 3D scanning of the goods before painting and advanced automation throughout the process to maintain high quality and efficiency. The new property has been built together with existing buildings to ensure a seamless production flow.

“Paletten reflects our commitment to operational excellence and innovation. Modernising a core part of our production flow aligns with our ambition to reduce our environmental footprint,” says Ernesto Domínguez, President & CEO, Toyota Material Handling Europe.

In connection with the start of production, the painting facility was officially inaugurated with representatives from large parts of the world, including the European group management, representatives from Toyota Industries Corporation in Japan and project management. The inauguration aimed both to mark the start of the long-term vision and to showcase the facility in full operation. The project has been very successful and has distinguished itself through high quality, good adherence to the schedule and innovative technical solutions.

“We are the market leader in Europe and we are in an industry with good prospects for the future. We are proud to inaugurate our largest production investment, Paletten, as a significant milestone for continued growth, innovation and delivery to our customers,” says Kristian Björkman, Senior Vice President Supply Toyota Material Handling Europe.

Toyota Material Handling Europe aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by FY 2041 (across the entire value chain) and our targets have been approved by the Science Base Target Initiative (SBTI). The new paint shop has been designed with this in mind and has several solutions that help to minimise the company's environmental impact.

The paint shop has:

• Recovery of heat from the paint shop via ventilation units, improving overall energy efficiency
• Heating with locally produced biogas since 2019, following the other paint shop ovens on site, reducing dependence on fossil energy sources
• Closed circular system for process water that minimises water consumption
• On-demand and adaptable cooling zones & paint boxes ensuring that energy is used only when needed
• Two independent production flows that enable more efficient energy use, enabling more efficient operation at varying production volumes
• 592 kWp solar cells on the roof