Guangqi Toyota Engine Marks AZ Engine Production Start

Tokyo ― TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that Guangqi Toyota Engine Co., Ltd. (GTE), a joint venture company established with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Automobile) for the production of automobile engines in Nansha, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China, held a line-off ceremony today for the AZ 2.4-liter gasoline engine.

Approximately 300 people were present at the ceremony, including officials from the Guangzhou municipal government and the Japanese government, as well as Guangzhou Automobile Chairman Zhang Fangyou and Vice President Yuan Zhongrong (who is also GTE vice chairman), TMC Executive Vice President Yoshimi Inaba, and GTE President Keisaku Inoshita and Vice President Wu Song.

During the ceremony, Inaba offered his appreciation and encouragement when he said, "Toyota is very proud to have formed a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile and to have established a production base here in Guangzhou to produce the AZ engine, which is in high demand all over the world. It is my fervent hope that GTE will live up to everyone's expectations and become one of the foremost engine plants in the world."

In addition to AZ engine production, which started in October, GTE has been producing engine parts since January. GTE's current engine production capacity stands at 300,000 units per year. However, with the establishment of a second production line, the construction of which began in October, capacity will increase to 500,000 units per year in 2006. The plant is scheduled to produce 25,000 engines by the end of 2005. All engine parts and engines produced in 2005 will be exported to Japan.

In September 2004, Guangzhou Automobile and TMC also established a vehicle production and sales base, Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (GTMC), which is scheduled to begin production of the Camry (or the "Kaimeirui", as it is called in China), equipped with GTE-manufactured AZ engines, in mid-2006.