Toyota, Guangzhou Automobile Perform Groundbreaking Ceremony
for Engine Production Company in China

Tokyo ― GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE GROUP CO., LTD. (Guangzhou Automobile) and TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) held a groundbreaking ceremony today for their new joint venture, Guangqi Toyota Engine, Ltd. (GTE), established on Feb. 24 for the production of automobile engines.

GTE will begin production of engine parts at the beginning of 2005 and commence production of Toyota 2.4-liter gasoline AZ engines in autumn of the same year. It will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 units and is scheduled to produce 25,000 engines in 2005, all of which are to be exported to Japan .

GTE is capitalized at 1.1 billion yuan RMB (approx. 14.6 billion yen), with TMC investing 70% of the capital and Guangzhou Automobile the remaining 30%. TMC Senior Managing Director Akio Toyoda is scheduled to assume the post of chairman of the new company, and Project General Manager (China Div.) Keisaku Inoshita the post of president.

The lively groundbreaking ceremony began at 10 a.m. local time ( 11 a.m. Japan time) on Feb. 25, with Guangzhou Automobile Chairman Zhang Fangyou and President Lu Zhifeng, and TMC Senior Managing Director Akio Toyoda and China Office General Manager Etsuo Hattori in attendance, along with many officials from the central government, Guangdong provincial government and Guangzhou municipal government.

During the course of the ceremony, Guangzhou Automobile Chairman Zhang commented that “Guangzhou Automobile and TMC have succeeded in forming this collaboration by complimenting each other's needs in order to realize the companies' mutual strategies and goals,” while TMC Senior Managing Director Toyoda expressed his hope that “this important project in Guangzhou, which is the largest automobile market in China, will be up and running as soon as possible and that everyone will work hard to ensure its future success.”