Toyota to Offer Hybrid Technology to Chinese Partner

Toyota recently ruled out the possibility to start building hybrid cars in China so, in order to be able to compete against powerful names such as Volkswagen and General Motors, the Japanese company is planning to offer hybrid technology to a local partner. A report by just-auto.com hints that the name of Toyota's future Chinese buddy is FAW Group, which could start production of hybrid models based on Toyota's resources as soon as 2013.

Toyota will thus supply the know-how, as well as motors, batteries and several other components to the Chinese group, but specific details are yet to be revealed. Still, Kyodo News claims negotiations are still under way, so more information is likely to emerge in the near future.

And although Toyota doesn't intend to produce cars in China, this doesn't necessarily mean that the company will ignore the local market. Back in August, Japanese representatives announced that Toyota wants to open its first wholly owned research and development site to increase quality of the vehicles it sells in China.

The announcement was made by Masahiro Kata, the head of Toyota China, during a quality seminar that was recently held in Japan. The executive didn’t offer any additional details regarding the future quality center, but added that the site’s project is currently being analyzed by the country’s authorities and that it will be located near Shanghai.

Of course, an R&D center would be mainly aimed at vehicle recalls, as Toyota still struggles to repair its image after the nightmare it had to deal with this year.