Japan’s Toyota is Koreain talks to acquire real estate for the establishment of a new electric vehicle factory for its premium marque Lexus in Shanghai, China’s biggest city by economic output, people familiar with the matter told Nikkei on Monday. The world’s largest automaker expects the facility to be wholly owned by itself and to start operation as early as 2027, the report said, without giving further details. The Japanese auto giant is in negotiation with Shanghai authorities for treatment similar to that Tesla received, such as tax breaks and land grants, in addition to 100% ownership for the facility without the involvement of a local Chinese partner, Bloomberg reported in June. Toyota has two joint ventures for local manufacturing in China and total sales of FAW-Toyota and GAC-Toyota reached 1.4 million units in the January-November period, representing a 9% fall from a year ago, according to figures published by the China Passenger Car Association. [Nikkei, in Japanese, Reuters, Bloomberg]
