China FAW, Toyota Announce Hybrid Vehicle Tie-up

Tokyo - CHINA FAW GROUP CORPORATION (FAW) and TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC), based on their hitherto cooperative production and sales efforts, announced today a basic agreement on jointly promoting the widespread use of high-quality, high-performance hybrid vehicles built in China.

FAW President Zhu Yanfeng and TMC President Fujio Cho formalized their companies' intentions this morning at a signing ceremony at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. About 300, people, including Chinese government officials and members of the media, were present.

To enhance people's awareness and understanding of hybrid vehicles and to make such vehicles available in China as soon as possible, FAW and TMC plan to begin assembly of the Prius in China by the end of 2005.

Furthermore, both sides agreed to consider the future possibility of an FAW-brand vehicle featuring a hybrid system based on Toyota technology.

Ever since signing a wide-ranging joint-project agreement concerning the automobile business in China in August 2002, FAW and TMC have been steadily building a collaborative relationship that covers production, sales and other efforts. With the new agreement, the companies intend to contribute to the promotion of hybrid vehicles in China as well as to the further development of the Chinese automobile industry.