Understandably, Toyota wants to increase its footprint in China, the world's largest market for new cars. The Chinese government has been increasingly stressing on manufacturing more electric vehicles by automakers in the country and Toyota's move is in a bid to capture the market early.
Big move by Toyota
Toyota along with FAW Group, according to documents issued by authorities of China-Singapore Tianjin Eco City, and per a Reuters report plans to pump in a whopping $1.2 billion (8.5 billion yuan) in the proposed plant in Tianjin. The new plant is expected to produce a staggering 200,000 all-electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles every year. Also, per reports, Toyota plans to complete building and start manufacturing in the plant by the early 2020s.
Toyota has a sizeable presence in China has so far has been quite successful. The Japanese carmaker, however, refrained from commenting on the reported news although the company said in a statement that it considers China as one of the most important global markets and has been constantly trying to meet the demands of vehicles in that country.
Toyota's success in China
Toyota is the world's largest carmaker and is way ahead in the race. The Japanese carmaker has so far been extremely successful in China and boasts three plants in the Chinese mainland and another one in Guangzhou. Given that the Chinese government has been stressing automakers to produce electric and hybrid cars in the country, it seems Toyota is making just the right moves, if reports of the new plant are to be believed.
An increasing number of carmakers across world are investing in development of electric vehicles and Toyota is no different. Toyota is also increasing manufacturing capacity in it Guangzhou facility, where it has a partnership with GAC and makes the Camry, C-HR, Highlander, Levin, Wildlander, Yaris models. Interestingly, despite China's car market shrinking by 8.2% in 2019, Toyota sold 1.62 billion Toyota and premium Lexus cars in China, witnessing a jump of 9% in year-over-year sales.
