Toyota is working to build on its own an electric vehicle plant in Shanghai for its Lexus luxury brand, informed sources said Tuesday.
The leading automaker is negotiating with local authorities and other parties involved to make the plant a wholly owned operation in the wake of the Chinese government’s foreign investment deregulation, according to people familiar with the matter.
U.S. EV giant Tesla has already built a wholly owned manufacturing plant in the same city, becoming the first foreign automaker to take advantage of the deregulation.
Toyota, which currently ships Lexus models from Japan to China, intends to put the planned plant into operation as early as around 2027 and sell in principle all its products in the world’s biggest auto market, where EVs including plug-in hybrids have quickly been replacing gasoline vehicles.
But the Japanese automaker will still need to negotiate terms further with its Chinese counterparts, people involved in the talks said.