Shanghai, May 21 (Gasgoo.com) Toyota Motor and its Chinese partner FAW Group started operation of their joint venture's new plant in southwestern Sichuan province on March 19, raising the Japanese auto giant's production capacity in China to 820,000 vehicles, Xinhua News reported.
The new plant for Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor, involving 3.6 billion yuan ($527 million), is located in Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone. The news factory will produce 30,000 units of Toyota's Prado model annually, compared to 13,000 units at the former plant.
Toyota currently has two 50:50 joint ventures in China, one with FAW Group and the other with Guangzhou Automobile Group, each with a production capacity of 360,000 and 460,000, respectively. The new plant in Sichuan boosts Toyota's current production capacity in China to 820,000.
The FAW-Toyota JV has also invested 3.8 billion yuan in a new plant in Changchun, southeastern Jilin province. The new factory will start production in the first half of 2012, to make 100,000 Corolla cars per year and lift Toyota's China output to 920,000 units by then.
Toyota Motor said its China sales in the first four months of this year rose 37% from a year earlier to 242,000 units, with April sales up 32% to 64,000. Last year the company sold 709,000 vehicles in China, up 21%, and aims to sell 800,000 units this year.
