Expansion: Toyota to sell hybrid vehicles by 2015

BEIJING: Leading automaker Toyota said on Saturday that it plans to start producing vehicles with Chinese-made hybrid systems by 2015, after it finishes building a research centre in the country. The energy-saving vehicles would be made and sold in China through Toyota’s joint ventures with Guangzhou Automobile Group and FAW Group Corporation, the Japanese firm said in a statement. The automaker usually exports its key components for hybrid vehicles from Japan. Toyota is investing $689 million in a research and development centre for “environmental technologies” in the eastern city of Changshu, near Shanghai. Part of the centre opened in April, but construction of a test track, main administration and laboratory facilities is expected to be completed in 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2011.