EV factory in China: Lexus buys land in Shanghai
The plant will not be operated as part of a joint venture with a Chinese car manufacturer (Toyota currently maintains partnerships with, among others, FAW and GAC). Instead, it will be wholly owned by Lexus. This would make it only the second car plant in China to be entirely owned by a foreign manufacturer. The first – Tesla’s Giga Shanghai – is also located in the Chinese metropolis, albeit in the southeastern district of Fengxian.
According to the Shanghai Public Resources Trading Centre, Toyota’s premium brand paid 1.353 billion yuan (around 164 million euros) for the land. Lexus secured usage rights for 50 years for this sum, as reported by outlets such as CN EV Post. The carmaker is permitted to manufacture New Energy Vehicles (i.e. battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) there, as well as lithium-ion batteries and other battery products.
Toyota announced in February 2025 that it intended to establish a wholly owned subsidiary in Jinshan for the development and production of electric vehicles and batteries. Rumours about a potential Lexus production site in China had even surfaced beforehand, but the February announcement marked the first official confirmation of the project by the company itself.
According to those earlier statements, up to 100,000 battery-electric Lexus vehicles will be built annually in Shanghai starting in 2027. The facility is also expected to be expandable to accommodate higher production volumes in the future. Toyota says that in the initial phase, it will create around 1,000 jobs. However, details regarding the specific models to be produced at the plant have not yet been disclosed.
From 2027, a new next-generation electric Lexus model will roll off the production line at Toyota’s Takaoka plant in Japan. Further information on this model is also not yet available. It remains unclear whether this vehicle will be a sister model to the China-made EV, potentially produced in Japan for global markets, or whether they will be entirely separate product lines.
China is Toyota’s third-largest market after the US and Japan. However, the Japanese carmaker has struggled thus far with battery-electric vehicles. In China, Toyota has even made use of competitor BYD’s Blade batteries and electric motors – for example, in the bZ3 electric saloon. Last year, Toyota and FAW launched the bZ3C crossover, while the bZ3X – a more practical electric SUV in comparison to the bZ3C – originates from the joint venture with GAC.
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