According to recent reports the partnership between FAW’s Tianjin subsidiary and Toyota is readying a self developed electric car for the Chinese market. The new EV will be pushed into yet another sub brand from FAW, development on the brand and the first model are currently in negotiation with Toyota regarding the vehicle, and it is expected to see a launch before 2012.
The new EV will be based on the Toyota Vios compact car which is about to go out of production in China and would use a self developed electric drive train that Tianjin FAW would develop themselves.
Tiajin Toyota are already working on developing a new R&D facility with 75,000 sq meters of space that will incorporate a design center, a conference center, and a laboratory. The main tasks of this new center will be to undertake the localization of Toyota’s China models, development of new models, development of new energy cars and testing, and will also be tasked with giving small facelifts to Chinese produced models.
