Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor (SFTM) is set to start the production of 2.7l Land Cruiser Prado SUV at its Chengdu plant in southwest China from March 2015.
SFTM, which is a vehicle production joint venture between Toyota Motor and the China FAW Group (FAW), is planning to employ approximately 500 new employees to this plant.
The move will increase the plant's current production of the 4.0l version. Toyota will invest approximately JPY5bn ($50.8m) for this new expansion. The annual production capacity of the plant will increase from 30,000 units to 50,000 units.
SFTM president Akio Kato said that the SFTM Chengdu Plant is a key base for their business in China.
"Going forward, we will continue to build cars that meet the needs of Chinese consumers," Kato added.
Recently, the Japanese automaker has developed a latest driving support system that uses two automated driving technologies to enable safe highway driving.
The new system, Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA), combines two technologies - Cooperative-adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Trace Control.
