Toyota Plans to Produce 3 Million Cars A Year in China by 2030

Toyota intends to boost its vehicle production in China to over 3 million units annually by the end of the decade.

It seems Toyota has put on its serious cap in China, as the Japanese automaker now intends to rapidly expand its Chinese total production volume. In a bid to gain back lost market shares from emerging domestic rivals such as BYD and Geely, Toyota now aims to produce more than three million cars annually by the end of this decade.

According to Toyota insiders who spoke to Reuters, this ambitious plan, although no exact figures were stated, will see a substantial increase of its annual production volume in China, which maxed out at 1.84 million units last year. Said figure by itself represents a 63% increase over the previous year, where the Japanese automaker churned out 1.75 million units annually.

In order to prepare for this production boost, insiders also told Reuters that Toyota has informed some of its suppliers about this ambitious production ramp-up plan. The company has also enlisted help from its two existing Chinese joint ventures to improve production efficiency, while at the same time empowering local staff to lead the majority part of the development in a bid to leverage their understanding of the local market demands.

Ultimately, Toyota aims to consolidate vehicle production across its joint ventures into a single operation in the future. Besides models from these two joint ventures sharing the same production facility in the future, these models would also be offered across both dealership networks, signalling a more unified approach to its fragmented local strategy.

It is no secret that many legacy brands like Toyota are facing difficulties in the Chinese market, thanks to the recent emergence of local brands such as BYD, Geely, Xpeng, and many more. While Toyota plans to double down its fight against these local brands, other legacy Japanese brands such as Nissan and Honda have gradually scaled back their production capacity in China, while Mitsubishi has elected to exit the market entirely.

Toyota bZ3C EV saloon

Besides the usual global products like the Camry and Corolla, Toyota has also made several attempts to localise its lineup for the Chinese market. Among the most popular China-only models made by Toyota is the Toyota bZ3C—an all-electric compact saloon developed specifically for the local market that uses BYD’s FinDreams battery system to provide up to 600 KM of EV range (CLTC).