Report: Toyota Considering 8th Assembly Plant In China, Bringing Local Output to 1M Units

3 February 2008

The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor is considering building an eighth assembly plant in China, thereby raising the company’s annual local output to about 1 million units.

The plant in Changchun, Jilin Province, would be built by a joint venture with China’s top automaker, FAW Group Corp. Although Toyota already has a small facility in that city to assemble the Prius hybrid and other vehicles, this would be its first full-fledged plant there, with painting and press equipment.

The Corolla subcompact is among the candidates for assembly. Output levels have yet to be decided. But for a plant capable of churning out 100,000 units a year, Toyota would likely spend 50 billion yen or so. Production would start as soon as the early 2010s.

With approximate capacity of 1 million units a year, the plants in China would become Toyota’s third-largest production base, behind Japan and the US.